The interesting twist is that, for most of its existence, as fjallstrom noted, "the ECB is also the muscle behind the Commissions threats to any state that dares use fiscal stimulus."

Graeber:

What's more, tight money policies and the need to balance budgets having been used as the main weapon to chip away welfare-state policies in Europe, it has necessarily become the stake of political struggles between bankers and pensioners, creditors and debtors, just as heated as those of 1890s America.

So, what's changed? The EZ economy tanking and the ECB "wise men" realizing that loosening the money supply was the only way to avert a total meltdown?

The ECB is surely supporting Reform^TM, but it looks like they have now parted ways with the absolutists in the German political class.