Therefore, the monetary impulse had to be reinforced and needed to be quantitatively more predictable and controllable to put the economy and the outlook for price stability on a firmer footing. On 9 March, we started purchasing public-sector securities as part of our expanded asset purchase programme, which also comprises interventions in the ABS and covered bond markets.
First, it gave the regulators what they had badly needed during the crisis, which was a means of resolving the largest financial institutions without threatening  14  See Robert J. Samuelson (2008), The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath: The Transformation of America’s Economy, Politics, and Society (New York: Random House).