Carmen M Reinhart

When the European Central Bank's Governing Council met on December 14, there was little to surprise financial markets, because no policy changes could be gleaned from public remarks.

Only a small group of central banks refrain from intervening in the foreign-exchange market to stabilise their currencies' exchange rate or coax it in the desired direction.

What a government spends the public pays for. There is no such thing as an uncovered deficit.” So said John Maynard Keynes in A Tract on Monetary Reform.