Should the ECB go quantitative?

Many commentators either complain that the European Central Bank has not followed the FED, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan on the Quantitative Easing (QE) path of purchasing very large amounts of securities or, more kindly, advice the ECB to go that way, to more forcefully fight the risk of too low inflation [1].

Upward bias vs. downward bias: who will win?

ECB President Draghi confirmed, at the last press conference on September 5th, the unanimous view of the Governing Council: “we wanted to make it clear that we have a downward bias in interest rates for an extended period of time.“ He also said that “The Governing Council confirms that it expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time. “

“Forward with forward guidance!” OR “Much ado about nothing?

Many central banks in advanced economies have engaged in some form of forward guidance. The latest to tread this path was the Bank of England, which was preceded by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the Bank of Japan, the Fed, the Norges Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank, the Czech National Bank, the Bank of Canada and the European Central Bank. Also the Swiss National Bank has lately, if somewhat implicitly, had recourse to forward guidance.