A blank check for Draghi

It was to be expected - and feared: An expert opinion for the European Court of Justice says the European Central Bank should, "in principle," be allowed to buy government bonds. A progam of this kind would be perfectly legal, Advocate General Pedro Cruz Villalon wrote.

One doesn't need a crystal ball to predict that the court's judges will follow Cruz's expert advice when they issue their ruling, probably in the autumn.

I have to admit I've never had a good opinion of jurists - and unfortunately this has confirmed my prejudice. I think they are often indecisive, inconsistent, lacking courage - even cowardly. Germany's constitutional judges already decided the matter was much too sensitive for them to reach a clear decision. They were probably happy to pass the buck to the ECJ in Luxembourg.

And apparently there are justices running around in Luxembourg who are not one bit bolder than their counterparts in Karlsruhe. None of them dares to say openly that with its planned bond-buying program, the European Central Bank will do exactly what is expressly forbidden it by law: it will finance states.

To keep this breach of law, which will now probably be given sanction by Europe's highest court, from being too flagrant, the ECB will have to submit to vague, halfhearted conditions, such as "the obligation to state reasons" and ensuring "the requirements deriving from the principle of proportionality are strictly complied with," Cruz wrote.

Put another way: A violation of applicable European law has no consequences if it is "suitable" and is not "disproportionate."

These conditions are so mild they amount to a free ride: Not only can ECB President Mario Draghi finance ailing states by printing money, he can even largely make his own rules and establish procedures for his OMT program, as long as the ECB keeps its nose out of the reform programs imposed on a country.

But it can't even adhere to that, because in countries like Greece, the ECB, along with the IMF and the European Commission, forms part of the "troika" that created, and of course also monitors, these reform conditions.

What's far worse is that in other countries, such as France and Italy, its expansive monetary policy has let the steam out of the boiler that might have forced politicians to undertake harsh and unpopular structural reforms.

Mario Draghi knows this. And if only one accusation can be made against him, it is that he has not spent enough time traveling across Europe to urge politicians to implement these vital structural reforms.

He's done little more than pay lip service to this, while at the same time the ECB is also ready to buy time for the economically precarious member states of the eurozone, easing the pressure for reform. And, unfortunately, the judges in Luxembourg appear likely to encourage him.