In Japan, labour income per employee  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  dropped considerably over many years. In the euro area, no such broad-based development is to be seen. Only in Ireland and Greece has compensation per employee fallen markedly. Fears of a Japanese scenario are therefore misplaced. Moreover, the notion of Japan’s “lost decades” needs to be seen in perspective.
How did you do that? For example, we set a strict limit on how much we buy, so as to safeguard the functioning of the bond market. Moreover, the purchases are mainly made by the national central banks, which buy their national government bonds at their own risk: the Bundesbank buys German government bonds, the Banca d’Italia buys Italian government bonds, and so forth.