The ECB's reluctance to buy debt stems from Germany's (its strongest member) deep fear of inflation. From http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/09/09/140342690/t

The ECB's reluctance to buy debt stems from Germany's (its strongest member) deep fear of inflation. From http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/09/09/140342690/the-friday-podcast-the-ghost-that-haunts-europes-debt-crisis http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/09/09/140342690/the-frid... : It goes back to the years after World War I, when Germany experienced one of the most catastrophic bouts of hyperinflation in the history of the world — an economic disaster that helped lay the groundwork for the rise of the Nazis. So when Germany joined the euro, the Germans insisted that the newly created European Central Bank be bound by strict rules aimed at preventing inflation.