Michael McMahon, The CAGE Background Briefing Series No. 35, August 2015

'Sterilisation' – where purchases of assets by a central bank are offset by withdrawals – may help the ECB to control inflation. This column discusses how the ECB’s current approach may be fraught with danger, however. In a world where sovereign default risk is perceived to be likely, the ECB’s only real hope is that its approach makes a Eurozone default impossible.

Political Economy