The action was prompt – the JP Morgan moment was not missed – and the spike of yields was removed. (cf. lesson 1) And what about the longer run? Well there have been consequences, but not those imagined at the outset.
Sovereign spreads widened again and, though the program was used again with varying degrees of vigour, it cannot be said by any means to have eliminated the cross-country variations which are indeed impeding the smooth functioning of the monetary transmission. And it has not avoided the large debt exchange at steep haircuts for Greece, the original biggest target of the programme.