Martin Gilbert: Quantitative easing returns to the ECB

Central bank's U-turn should be welcomed

History seems set to repeat itself in Europe. Less than a year after the European Central Bank (ECB) wound up its bond buying programme, the words 'quantitative easing' are back.

Mario Draghi sent the latest signal about the ECB's intentions at month's Sintra conference for central bankers in Portugal. He made it clear additional stimulus would be required if economic conditions don't improve.  It is good the ECB is being proactive. History will probably judge that they (once again) tightened policy too quickly in ending their QE programme last year.  ECB to keep interest rates at 0% until mid-2020 But it puts fundamental-driven investors in a bind. The ultra-low interest rates and QE of the crisis era - which we'll call 'QE1' - had an utterly distorting ef...