Second, we intend to continue reinvesting the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the asset purchase programme for an extended period of time after the end of net purchases, and in any case for as long as necessary to maintain favourable liquidity conditions and an ample degree of monetary policy accommodation.
Martin Wolf,1 in an article in the Financial Times, relates the euro zone’s approach to the fiscal crises to the story of a man sentenced to death by his king. The king tells him that he can keep his life if he teaches the monarch’s horse to talk within a year. Surprisingly, the condemned man agrees.