Draghi's expanding battery of weapons for combating the euro crisis is to be
strengthened immensely on Wednesday when the European Commission unveils new
draft legislation putting the ECB in charge of supervising the eurozone's 6,000
banks, with the power to grant and withdraw licences. Within a month of taking
office last November, Draghi delivered a coup, launching a trillion-euro
programme of cheap loans for Europe's banks. Last Thursday he went much further,
announcing a new policy of limitless purchasing of eurozone government bonds
known as OMT — outright monetary transactions. The markets went quiet, Spain,
Italy, and Ireland rejoiced, as Draghi emphasised for the third time in six
weeks that the euro is irreversible. He framed his bold intervention as solidly
within his remit to defend the embattled currency. But German monetary purists
erupted in howls of protest, although it was the German on the ECB's six-strong
executive, Jörg Asmussen, who played a key role in drafting the new policy.
"Only a currency whose existence is out of the question can be stable," Asmussen
told the Guardian in an interview. "What for us is clearly within our mandate is
to guarantee the stability of the euro." Extreme times generate extreme moves.
There is no doubt that the eurozone's exhausted political leaders are quietly
relieved that Draghi is taking some of the heat out of the crisis. While Merkel,
the central actor in the euro drama, could never say so publicly, her aides have
been known to concede that Draghi is the only person who can rescue the euro –
so let him get on with it. And since the stakes could hardly be higher, for
Asmussen the end would appear to justify the means.
Well....as far as Spain goes :
Option 1 :a country like Spain asks for a bailout and has its budget (and therefore its entire legislative programme) subject to the oversight of the ECB. Death of democracy.
Option 2 :
a country like Spain asks for a bailout but refuses the oversight of the ECB on its legislature ; spurned by the ECB and the markets it crashes out of the Eurozone. Death of the Euro.
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