It is not the first time that Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has complained about the ultra-loose monetary policy being conducted in the Anglo-Saxon world. But when she attacked the European Central Bank on Tuesday, for its planned purchase of cover bonds – an unconventional way to help financial markets recover – Ms Merkel broke an unwritten ban on German leaders commenting on monetary policy close to home. The message, it seems, is that Berlin is more worried than people had assumed.

The chancellor is not just concerned about the long-term inflationary potential of excessive monetary loosening. Her main concern is that the expansionary fiscal and monetary policy being deployed across the industrial world to fight the economic crisis could be planting the seeds of future crises.