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I'm looking at the General Documentation on Eurosystem Monetary Policy, Instruments and Procedures, The Implementation of Monetary Policy in the Euro Area (pdf), which has a chapter on Open Market Operations, summarised in this table:
The detailed description of the operations says they are carried out by national central banks, with the exception of "fine tuning operations", where it is also possible "the Governing Council of the ECB can decide" to authorize the ECB to carry them out.
Now, when he says "the ECB cannot help Greece" he's assuming that Greece is bankrupt and needs an ECB loan and there's nothing else that can be done to help Greece.
In fact, Greek traded debt instruments are being subject to speculative attack in the markets and the as part of a "pump-and-dump" operation in which market price volatility is talked up as a sign of insolvency. The ECB could kill the volatility stone dead and enforce a floor on the price, and possibly bankrupt the speculators, through open market operations. That would help the whole Eurozone.
And trading in sovereign debt is a part of monetary policy. Sovereign debt is a key component of the money supply, right after cash. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
link En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
If there is a problem, they think it's entirely Greece's fiscal position, and the solution is neoliberal reform.
The thought that the bond market might be the problem hasn't crossed their minds. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
EIF carries out its venture capital and guarantee activities using either its own funds or funds entrusted by mandates. The principal sources of mandated funds are the main shareholders, the EIB (EUR 4bn) and the European Union (EUR 1.1bn), whilst up to EUR 1bn is derived from EIF's partnerships with public and private bodies.
The ECB is the central bank for Europe's single currency, the euro. The ECB's main task is to maintain the euro's purchasing power and thus price stability in the Eurozone, made up of the 16 EU countries that have introduced the euro since 1999.
(my text for a website on the EP) You can't be me, I'm taken
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