When I heard the news of another round of quantitative easing in the US last week, my first thought was that Mario Draghi should have done the same. Instead, the president of the European Central Bank opted for a conditional bond purchasing programme with an uncertain start date. In the meantime, the eurozone’s faltering economy needs a much more determined monetary stimulus, and it needs it right now.
For the moment, the eurozone crisis resolution process feels good because none of this month’s potential accidents happened. The German constitutional court has taken itself out of the equation.
Good riddance. Dutch voters re-elected their government and rejected the lure of populist propaganda. Mr Draghi did what was expected. While the economic situation in the member states gets worse, policy makers seem punch-drunkenly optimistic. They have not had so much luck in some time.