In response to an FT article by Philipp Hildebrand on 18th August 2014, entitled 'The Fed's regimen will not remedy Europe's ills'
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4bfdee34-2632-11e4-8bb5-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz46NZKmoip
"There are times when aggressive monetary policy makes a difference. This is the lesson that Ben Bernanke, the former Fed chairman, taught the world’s central bankers in the aftermath of the financial crisis"
The lesson he didn't teach, because he hasn't learned it yet,and I doubt he ever will, is that you cannot print your way to health, or taper a Ponzi scheme. The US economy is not 'recovering' by any definition that would have been recognisable pre-2008.
Ask someone who works for the government or the mainstream media and they'll tell you it is recovering. Ask someone on food stamps, someone who has given up looking for a job, someone doing two part time jobs, in fact anyone who would spend 100% of any marginal wage increase on consumption - ask them if the US economy is recovering, and you will get a very different response. But if you really want to know if the economy is in recovery, ask a member of the 0.1%. They know what's going on, which is why they are bidding up the price of fine art, top end real estate and Ferraris.
The Fed has run 5 years of QE and ZIRP in order to save their mates in Wall Street and help out a hopelessly inadequate government that has to rollover its debt, can't cope with anything other than rigged interest rates, and lacks the wit and the 'balls' to make the fiscal and structural changes necessary to save the US from falling over the brink. Janet Yellen is a well meaning person who doesn't 'get it'.
The Euro is fundamentally a political project, not an economic one. Mr Draghi will hold it together as his top priority, and he will only print, unenthusiastically, as a last resort. The pressure on him to do so will mount over the autumn. I suspect that his phone line will be getting hotter as the last two instalments drop off QE3 and the speculators give us their sober verdict on the US 'recovery'. "Hello Mario, Janet here…please print Mario…you know it makes sense…it's your turn Mario"