Last week’s decision by the European Central Bank to make unlimited purchases of government bonds in secondary markets was both necessary and bold. Mario Draghi, the ECB’s president, deserves credit for having obtained agreement for this controversial step, against the sole, albeit significant, opposition of Jens Weidmann, president of Germany’s redoubtable Bundesbank. It is a pity that the ECB did not do this before the crisis in sovereign debt reached Spain and Italy. Yet this delay is not surprising: eurozone policy makers have, perhaps inevitably, done too little, too late.
歐洲央行(ECB)在二級市場無限制購買政府債券的決定，既必要又大膽。歐洲央行行長馬里奧?德拉吉(Mario Draghi)頂住德國令人敬畏的央行(Bundesbank)行長延斯?魏德曼(Jens Weidmann)孤立（盡管重要）的反對，推動各方就這個有爭議的步驟達成一致，此舉值得贊賞。可惜歐洲央行沒有在主權債務危機波及西班牙和意大利之前采取這項行動，但拖延并不意外：歐元區政策制定者總是做得太少、太遲，這也許是不可避免的。