each failure of sterilization indicates that the ECB was trying to drain more than the entire spare liquidity of the private banking system for one-week lending. That this spare liquidity is less than €80bn should give the inflation hawks pause.

Clear something up for me. Sterilisation failed, you say, between December and February (this month), though last week it worked, to the tune of €76.5bn. Was that sum a target for the ECB, or was it as much as it could drain? (In the latter case, explaining "spare liquidity is less than €80bn").