This is essentially the austerity that was pushed onto Southern Europe because the ECB didn't have any mandate to engage in monetary policy until 2012, when the

This is essentially the austerity that was pushed onto Southern Europe because the ECB didn't have any mandate to engage in monetary policy until 2012, when the ECB started to rely on more creative readings. By this time it was QE from the US Fed that was driving the recovery, but the ECB did eventually engage in similar practices, if only to bail out assets owned by the northern banks.