The ECB announced this week that it was going to start buying investment grade corporate bonds. Several people in my Twitter feed pointed out that there was a problem with this. This chart posted on marginal revolution by Tyler Cowen makes the point. There are practically no eligible corporate bonds in Eurozone peripheral countries. Unless the bond buying program was miniscule, there would be no chance of mimicking the kind of geographical 'neutrality' you get with changing the ECB policy rate. And, bearing in mind that the need for stimulus differs greatly by country, it is perverse that the stimulus imparted by this bond-buying will be weakest, or even absent, where it is needed most.
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Making ECB corporate bond buying 'fairer' and…
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The ECB announced this week that it was going to start buying investment grade corporate bonds. Several people in my Twitter feed pointed out that there was a problem with this. This chart posted on marginal revolution by Tyler Cowen makes the point. There are practically no eligible corporate bonds in Eurozone peripheral countries. Unless the bond buying program was miniscule, there would be no chance of mimicking the kind of geographical 'neutrality' you get with changing the ECB policy rate. And, bearing in mind that the need for stimulus differs greatly by country, it is perverse that the stimulus imparted by this bond-buying will be weakest, or even absent, where it is needed most.