German top judges examining the European Central Bank’s plan to buy bonds of crisis-torn countries asked whether the operation crosses the line from legitimate monetary policy to illicit state financing. Witnesses at the second day of hearings before the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe faced queries from the panel on whether the central bank’s Outright Monetary Transactions oversteps the mark beyond the ECB’s mandate to conduct monetary policy. “We have heard that it’s very difficult to demarcate the line between state financing and monetary policy” when analyzing the OMT, Chief Justice Andreas Vosskuhle ... (full story)