Frankfurt — If someone were to codify the eternal laws of central-bank communication, one of them might go something like this: own the dialog with the market or the market will own it for you. Having spent Thursday afternoon trying to give as little information as possible about one of the most important questions in global monetary policy — how the European Central Bank (ECB) will extend, adjust or wind down its programme to buy €80bn a month of debt — president Mario Draghi has set himself up for another exercise in expectation management at the next meeting on December 8. The ECB finds itself in a period of unusual uncertainty for central banking worldwide, forcing it into an almost impossible choice between laying open its internal debates or proclaiming a definite path ahead. Even though Draghi signalled that quantitative easing (QE) will not come to an "abrupt" end, investors in the weeks ahead will still have to take bets on a wide range of parameters for the next steps. "Th...
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