The European Central Bank initiated a new mass money debasement scheme yesterday. If you recall, this involves buying €60 billion ($66 billion) a month of European government bonds. Somehow this is supposed to improve the economy.
No doubt, the European Union is absurd for many reasons. According to J.P. Morgan, the differences of its member countries are greater than a reconstruction of the territories of the former Ottoman Empire, all countries on Earth five degrees north of the Equator, and all countries beginning with the letter “M.” Conveniently, the ECBs effort to cheapen the currency merely holds the absurdities up for ridicule. Here are several questions that come to mind…
Where does the ECB get the money to buy government bonds? Does the ECB get it from the same place the Federal Reserve gets its money? Like the Fed, does the ECB make a ledger notation and borrow it into existence?
To whom will the ECB give the money to? Will they buy German bunds? Will they buy French OATs? Will they buy Italian BTPs? What about Greece government bonds? Or Spanish? Continue reading







