"While the surge in the ECB's balance sheet has been discussed to death on
these pages, with a particular emphasis on what we believe the key
correlation driver-cum-pissing contest of 2012 will be - namely the relative
size of the ECB vs Fed balance sheets - it is often best to see things for
oneself. Such as the fact that the balance sheet of the European Central Bank,
which has been accused of not printing, has grown at the
fastest non-pre apocalypse pace in history for a modern central bank (the only
exception is the Fed, whose balance sheet grew from under $1 trillion to over
$2.2 trillion in the aftermath of the money market collapse in about a month),
increasing by EUR800 billion, or over $1 trillion, in six
months, to E2.73 trillion (obviously an all time record). Annualized
this is an increase of over $2 trillion or more than the Fed did in all of QE1.
So, just what happens next year when the banks box Draghi in a corner
and the Goldmanite decides to actually... print. Perhaps this is a question, as
before, left best to our German readers, who unlike their detached from reality
peers in the US, know that hyperinflation is and can be all too real."
at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/update-non-printing-ecbs-parabolically-rising-balance-sheet
at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/update-non-printing-ecbs-parabolically-rising-balance-sheet