The asset purchase programme of the euro area, active between 2015 and 2018, constitutes an interesting special case of Quantitative Easing (QE) because the ECB’s Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) involved the purchase of peripheral euro area government bonds, which were clearly not...

The asset purchase program of the Euro area, active between 2015 and 2018, constitutes an interesting special case of Quantitative Easing (QE) because the ECB's (Public Sector Purchase Program) PSPP program involved the purchase of the bonds of peripheral Euro area governments, which were...

The importance of monetary policy for the current ultra-low interest rates is often over-estimated. As emphasised by ECB President Draghi himself, monetary policy cannot determine long-term rates directly, and its influence on long-term real rates is even more limited and indirect.Moreover,...