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.
Definition of QE3. The Fed announced in 2012 that it would begin a new programme of unlimited purchases of mortgage-backed securities â nicknamed QE3 or quantitative easing three. The first round of QE came during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. The second round (QE2), preceded by three months of fevered speculation, came in November 2010.