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The European music presses have recently rattled even faster.
At the last meeting in mid-March, the Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to accelerate bond purchases again.
And indeed: in the first two weeks after that, the central bank has already bought up European debt securities for 24 and 28.7 billion euros - previously it was only about half as much on average.
This flood of money is intended to nip any worries about the European economy in the bud.
Bond purchases and negative interest rates make capital cheap enough that businesses and consumers can survive the current crisis financially, so the goal.
At the same time, the side effects are becoming more and more blatant, experts warn.
Probably the most momentous is that the change in the economy is slowed down and innovations are prevented.
Especially in competition with the USA and China, this can become an additional disadvantage after the pandemic.
This is why voices are being raised calling for the ECB to turn around.
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"Monetary policy has to be discussed from a different perspective," says Hans-Jörg Naumer, head of capital market analysis at Allianz Global Investors.
So far, their role has been seen primarily as mitigating the crisis and stabilizing growth.
“But shouldn't monetary policy promote structural change?” He asks.
Naumer emphasizes that the cheap money ensures the survival of many companies that would have long been bankrupt under normal circumstances.
And indeed: The Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft (IW) estimates that around 5,000 “zombie companies” have been added in Germany alone in the past few months.
These are companies that can no longer pay the interest on their loans from current profits.
Ordinarily they would be bankrupt, but under the current conditions they can get additional loans to service their interest.
Source: WORLD infographic
This is now anything but rare - not just in Germany.
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is watching this trend around the world with concern.
And the BIS is not just anyone, after all, it is the central bank of the central banks, which, for example, had repeatedly warned of the real estate bubble in the USA long before the financial crisis.
According to their calculations, the proportion of zombie companies worldwide has risen to 18 percent in the past few months, the highest value ever recorded.
Before the crisis it was twelve percent.
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That in turn could of course mean that many companies only fell into this category because of acute problems, but recovered quickly as soon as the pandemic is over.
However, the BIS experts also state that around 70 percent of current zombies will remain so in the long term - and this figure has even risen slightly recently.
So the current crisis does not seem to be the reason for the zombification of the economy.
Rather, it has its causes in the low interest rates, as BIS chief economist Claudio Borio has not tired of explaining for years.
The current monetary policy could cause permanent damage, he said in 2018. Because it inhibits productivity growth in particular.
Source: WORLD infographic
And that is exactly what can be seen as well.
The productivity of workers in Europe has barely increased for years, and recently it even decreased due to the crisis.
The number of new companies is also falling steadily.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, the figure was 149,000 in 2010, but the number fell to 123,000 by 2019 - of course, it was even lower last year, but the pandemic also played a role here.
In 2010, the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) still counted 1.8 percent of the labor force among the founders, in 2019 it was only 1.17 percent.
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The obvious reason: Since hundreds of thousands of companies are artificially kept alive and keep market shares in their respective sectors, the hurdles for start-ups are very high.
In addition, the seemingly dead companies tie up capital, skilled workers and experts who are lacking elsewhere in order to initiate new, innovative business models.
The OECD has repeatedly pointed out this connection.
Allianz economist Naumer therefore calls for a departure from the policy of cheap money.
The central bank must make a clear announcement that it will leave this course.
The current crisis is also no reason to wait.
“The economic situation is nowhere near as bad as we feared a year ago,” he says.
"The reins need to be tightened now."
Naumer sees this as a clear sign that the central bank wants to promote change and not stagnation.
After all, the challenges of the coming years are enormous, especially due to climate change.
However, this cannot be stopped by self-restraint and redistribution.
The only solution is through innovation.
But it is precisely this that prevents the current monetary policy.
However, so far Naumer has been a lonely shouter in the desert of interest rates, especially on the capital market.
After all, the flood of money benefits the stock markets in particular.
Last week, the Dax climbed over 15,000 points for the first time in history, and the indices are constantly climbing new records around the world.
This makes the standstill feel very comfortable for most.
At the same time, however, China is rapidly advancing its development.
"Beijing is no longer satisfied with being the workbench of the world," says Horst Löchel, head of the German-Chinese center at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.
This became clear again at the most recent meeting of the People's Congress, the country's bogus parliament, where those in power presented their plans.
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The Bundesbank is calling for monetary policy to be “normalized”
China wants to become a high-income country.
"If you want to have more prosperity, you need more high-tech," says Löchel.
And it is precisely this development that the People's Republic is pushing forward with all its might.
The largest internet corporations already come from the USA - and China.
The “Made in China 2025” strategy clearly aims for the country to become world leaders in ten key technological industries by 2025.
After all: On Thursday, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann also called for a rapid normalization of monetary policy after the pandemic.
It remains to be seen whether the presses will then really rattle more slowly.