Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Federal Reserve's summer policy retreat, [Adam] Posen [a member of the BOE's monetary policy committee] said there was a "slow panic" in the euro-area government bond markets that is in the mandate and capability of the ECB to deal with. Posen said the ECB should put a cap on bond rates. "A central bank cannot determine the long-bond rate under normal circumstances forever," Posen said. But if there is "something that is out of whack with fundamentals" then the central bank convincing markets that it will respond should make it go away, he said. The amount of debt that Spain or Italy is rolling over at any given moment is relatively small as a share of European GDP, Posen said. "And so the ability to intervene on that should be very high," he said.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/boes-posen-backs-ecb-bond-purchases-2012-08-30He's about to sayanora suckers, so I guess he's free to say what he really thinks.
