Jean Claude Trichet has finally learned the Bernank's lesson #1 on Central Bankering: when all else fails, buy it all. The FT reports that according to traders the ECB was on Thursday buying Portuguese and Irish bonds in €100m tranches – four times bigger than previously, which in turn sharply brought down the cost of borrowing for Lisbon and Dublin and sparked a euro rally. Just like in the US, this means that virtually no assets reflect their true value, as the ECB is now monetizing debt, without even having formally announced it is doing so, either in a sterilized or unsterilized fashion. This means that next week's update of the ECB SNP programme will demonstrate a surge in bond buying. This is especially the case when factoring in that Trichet is currently out in the market waving every Portuguese Bond in. It is a sad day that the only way the ECB, just like the Fed, can create an upward move in an asset class only by forcing a short squeeze.

The chart below shows today's ECB intervention in PGBs: