The head of German economic institute IFO, Hans Werner Sinn, has been the first German to come out against the ECB’s new purchase program to claim it falls outside fo the ECB’s mandate.
In an emailed statement he urged the German government to act against the ECB program saying that it turned the central bank into a proper bailout institution and a European bad bank.
“These purchases are not covered by the mandate of the ECB because they are a fiscal and not a monetary-policy measure. The breach of mandate is obvious”
He then added that the German government is obliged to take active steps against it or every German citizen will be able to sue the Federal constitutional court to get them to do so.
Strong words, but let’s see if they are followed up by comments from the German government directly. I very much doubt it though as they’ve known this has been coming for a while, although they would only have seen the full details today.
Not a happy bunny. Hans-Werner Sinn or Anthony Hopkins – you decide
