Hey, as early as 11 February 2010 our commentary on the crisis homed in on the fact that

What the ECB cannot do is fund a public debt issue, and that makes some sense from certain ideological perspectives.

Because by having passed through the bid-ask spread of a major investment bank, it is suddenly converted from a loan into a monetary instrument?

The last 22 months have been an exercise in teasing out the conequences of that ideological perspective.

tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker

Yes, Art. 123 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union states quite clearly that member state government bonds turn from debt instruments into monetary instruments by passing through the bid-ask spread of a commercial institution.

Trans-substantiation, if you will, although in reverse: The incredible state is transformed into something more credible by having a priest mumble a prayer over it while extracting a hefty tithe.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

This is how they work everywhere. All monopoly rights become holy when they are privatised and given away for nothing. All real estate land becomes holy when it's given to contruction business, all electricity and water utilities when they are given away.
No one asks how much wealth and jobs would have been created with these monopoly rents in real investements.

Neoliberalism is a deeply developed disease that will kill us all.