ABSTRACT
The late 20th and early 21st century has been depicted as the age of de-regulation where strong state engagement in the economy has been pushed back by privatization. Dissenting voices have, however, called for 'bringing the state back in' to balance the unwanted side-effects of liberalization. However, this effect is usually delayed, giving more leeway to bringing in added resources. In the EU, most Euro area governments responded to the financial crisis by providing economic assistance to ailing financial institutions with the aim of safeguarding financial stability and preventing a credit crunch. Reinventing a monetarist 'super-Keynesianism' made the neoliberal aversion to active state intervention in the economy evaporate, as long as it was channelled through the central bank and pumped into the banking system. While it is easy to understand the need for state engagement to save the economy under deep crises, the QE way of doing it has several weaknesses.
