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