We are not there to clean up the politicians’ mess. Does this consensus still exist at the ECB? It is very clearly our mandate. Is the ECB the governments’ bully or their bankroller? The role of bankroller is expressly prohibited, and being a bully is good neither for the ECB nor for monetary union.
If we, as central bankers, started trying to shove democratically elected governments around, people would soon be asking, and rightly so, whether the central bank was perhaps overstepping its remit. The announcement of the bond purchase programme has finally brought some calm. Whereas critics claim the move goes beyond the central bank’s mandate, your colleagues have lauded it as a great success.