Nog meer over zombiebanken

PROBABLY the most successful monetary-policy measure undertaken in recent times.” That is Mario Draghi’s self-effacing judgment on the outright monetary transactions (OMT) programme, the promise made by the European Central Bank (ECB) last summer to buy the bonds of struggling euro-area governments. The ECB’s president deserves credit for bringing calm to bond markets. But in reality the situation is still awful, and Europe’s banks are at the heart of the problem.