Purchase of government bonds by the ECB: How should the open market policy of the European Central Bank be assessed?

Since May 2010 the European Central Bank has been making direct purchases of public and private bonds on the secondary market. Markus C. Kerber, Technical University of Berlin, argues that this new open market policy of the ECB - the purchasing of government bonds on the secondary market - is in fact not permissible and damages the stability of the euro zone. In the opinion of Martin Mandler and Peter Tillmann, University of Gießen, this policy of the ECB is a potential transfer of resources to the crisis states and their creditors that in principle is not one of the tasks of monetary policy; there are alternatives to this programme in its current form. Against the background of the "unconventional" monetary policies of central banks throughout the world, a different approach could reduce the risks of such transfers.