Many changes, however, have already been implemented and, one assumes, have also been amply digested by the markets.
The ECB was assigned a precise mandate: to maintain price stability2. Likewise, the scope of action is limited and some tasks are explicitly prohibited, e.g. the outright purchases of government bonds on the primary market, i.e. the monetization of public debt.3 The EMU implied, however, a historically rare asymmetry.