The ECB is getting even more political

The European Central Bank (ECB) has increased interest rates by half a percentage point. Negative interest rates are history, the official base rate is even 0.5 percent. So far so good.

You can blame her for acting too late and too hesitantly. On the other hand, finding the right timing during plague and war is anything but trivial.

The widespread notion that such events could occur without noticeable costs is also naïve. In the end, inflation is always the bill for expenses that nobody wants to pay.

Far more problematic is the new “instrument” introduced under the abbreviation TPI, with which the ECB wants to help highly indebted countries like Italy when their state financing becomes too expensive. It should only be used for “speculative” attacks, not for fundamental problems, it said in advance.