Meanwhile, in la-la land...

I do not know at this point how anyone can listen to/read about the ECB and not go absolutely apeshit mad.

FT:

Mario Draghi, ECB president, warned last week that the bank could not “fill the vacuum” created by politicians’ inactivity.

...Ahem... Mr. Draghi: the "vacuum" that Southern Europe now faces is that they don't have enough money. You represent the only instutution on the face of the planet that can actually remedy that situation. That is, indeed, your job. WTF?

And this:

The ECB president notes most of the problems befalling the eurozone having “nothing to do with monetary policy”.

WTF? WTF???

And finally:

He also notes that rate cuts would have very little immediate effect because of the breakdown in the monetary transmission mechanism, ie, the benefits wouldn’t be felt by businesses and households.

Let me translate that. "The ECB has failed at its job to keep the monetary transmission mechanism of the EU zone functioning like it's supposed to. We have, in fact, completely lost control. We will not try to take steps to restore the fuctioning of the transmission mechanism. That requires us to do stuff, and we generally don't like to do stuff. We'd much rather do nothing. Wouldn't you? I mean, say you're a doctor and your patient is dying from a curable desease: wouldn't you rather just wait for him to die than try to save him? Exactly... Before you know it you people are going to start asking us to actually work at work."