Hobbes is famous for his early and elaborate development of what has come to be known as âsocial contract theoryâ, the method of justifying political principles or arrangements by appeal to the agreement that would be made among suitably situated rational, free, and equal persons.
TODAY the European Central Bank (ECB) launches its long-awaited programme of quantitative easing (or QE), adding lots of public debt to the private kind it has already been buying. Its monthly purchases will rise from around â¬13 billion ($14 billion) to â¬60 billion until at least September 2016.
Itâs the new conventional wisdom: When all else fails to make economies grow, create new money and buy government bonds. Thatâs the formula dubbed quantitative easing, or QE. Most economists think it helped keep the U.S. and the other countries that used it â Japan and the U.K. â from tumbling into a catastrophic depression.