Q&A: Paul Donovan

European Central Bank (ECB)’s president Mario Draghi announced last month an unlimited bond-buying program to save the Eurozone and its debt-loaded countries. The United States Federal Reserve is also buying more bonds after it announced a third round of quantitative easing. Investors sighed with relief and markets reacted positively. The United States’ ‘fiscal cliff’ still looms, however, with massive, legally mandated tax increases and spending cuts coming into effect at the beginning of 2013 if no budget-balancing deal is found. For insight on these and other issues, Executive sat for a one-on-one with Paul Donovan, global economist at UBS, while he was in Beirut last month. Draghi recently announced an unlimited bond-buying program whereby the ECB would acquire short-term government bonds of countries in distress. Is this a band-aid or leap forward for solving the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis? It’s not a band-aid. I would say it is step forward;