The European Central Bank is about to do something very stupid

Is the ECB completely insane?

This will not help.
(Image credit: Gary Waters / Alamy Stock Photo)

Back in 2012, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi declared that "the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro." He has apparently already forgotten that promise.

The ECB didn't even begin to make good on that vow until March 2015, when it kicked off a quantitative easing (QE) program worth $60 billion a month. In plain English, that means the ECB started creating a bunch of euros out of thin air and using them to buy up various financial assets. In March 2016, it kicked things up a notch, to $80 billion in purchases a month.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.