Draghi to Germany: Obey the Law

This is wonderfully ironic. The Germans are livid over Draghi’s insane monetary policy, which is causing issues for Europe’s largest economy.

In testimony today, ECB chief, Super Mario Draghi, told Germany to buzz off and to obey.

“We have a mandate to pursue price stability for the whole of the euro zone not only for Germany,” he told a news conference.

“We obey the law, not the politicians, because we are independent as stated by the law.”

The comments came after German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble sharply attacked ECB policies, arguing they were causing “extraordinary” problems for Germany and were in part to blame for the rise of the right-wing anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Draghi repeatedly stressed that inflation remained far off the bank’s target of near two percent and argued that the euro zone economy still faced a cocktail of external risks and would be in a worse state today had the ECB not resorted to negative interest rates to accompany a 1.7 trillion euro ($1.92 billion) money-printing scheme.

“Our policies work, they are effective. Just give them time to fully display their effects,” he said. “Global uncertainties persist. Looking forward, it is essential to preserve an appropriate degree of monetary accommodation as long as needed.”

He said the bank would begin buying corporate bonds as part of its quantitative easing policy in June.

Acting to halt speculation that he was entertaining the prospect of so-called “helicopter money” — handing money directly to the public — to kickstart the economy, Draghi stated the bank had not discussed that option.

European markets are lower, across the board. I guess those degenerates really wanted some helicopter money. The schism between Germany v the bankrupted in Europe will be something to watch. Up until a few years ago, Germany seemed to be setting policy for the ECB. But ever since the Greek crisis and subsequent market scares, German austerity has been shelved. Replacing it is a form of monetary easing and degeneracy that would make any Austrian economist cringe.