The result: the ECB waited too long to act. It can be sensible to reflate, providing the conditions are right. Britain and the US started doing it some time ago – the US pumping the equivalent of 25 per cent of its annual GDP into the economy. The eurozone has thus joined the party long after everyone else, and even so will only spend something equivalent to just over 10 per cent of its GDP. In the short term, the action may well work, for the markets seem to be showing initial enthusiasm. But in the long term it is clear that the only way for the eurozone to achieve the economic harmony it seeks is through ever-closer political union. That would require treaty change that, in turn, would require national referendums.