Even Martin Weale, who had until recently been calling for a 0.25 point rate rise, changed tack and argued that QE2 would work. In a slightly desperate attempt to counter the argument that it would have little effect because the borrowing cost on Government debt cannot drop much lower, he said: "This is true only of short and medium dated stock.
"At the long end of the market, yields are not historically low... [They] are well above the levels reached in the middle of the last century."
The biggest hint of all, though, was a suspiciously timed piece of analysis in last month's Quarterly Bulletin. The first �200bn of QE, which rolled off the presses between March 2009 and January 2010, lifted the economy by as much as 2pc, the analysis claimed. It also had the effect of reducing interest rates by between one-and-a-half and three percentage points, which, combined with a rise in asset prices, increased households' net financial wealth by about 16pc.
The message was clear. QE had saved the country from an even worse recession. There was a health warning, though. "The economic and financial circumstances in which further asset purchases or sales are made may be very different, so it cannot be assumed that the magnitude of the effects will necessarily be the same," the report concluded.
In many ways, the circumstances are very different now. For a start, the UK is not technically in a recession. Growth in the quarter to June was 0.1pc, and is expected to be 0.4pc in the three months to September. Gilt yields were much higher in March 2009. The five-year gilt, for example, was 2.65pc. It is now 1.35pc. Back then, all confidence in Britain's banks had evaporated.
But Sir Mervyn made it clear that there are also striking similarities. "This is the most serious financial crisis we've seen at least since the 1930s, if not ever," he told Sky News. What started with Lehman Brothers is echoing through the eurozone.
Banks, though stronger, are still facing a credit crunch. The threat was evident in Sir Mervyn's letter to the Chancellor, which warned that Europe's debt crisis has "resulted in severe strains in bank funding markets and financial markets more generally". If banks can't raise funds they "may inhibit the availability of credit to consumers and businesses", he added. A second credit crunch would almost certainly mean a second recession.
Although the UK is not contracting, the risks are rising. Sir Mervyn may have studiously avoided the r-word, but he did say: "We've taken pre-emptive action to prevent the slowdown becoming too serious." As he stressed repeatedly in his broadcast interviews, the "problems are originating in the rest of the world" but they "threaten the recovery".
So, will QE2 work? Nida Ali, of the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, reckons not. "We believe that more QE has now crossed its buy-back date and are sceptical about its effectiveness in boosting growth," she said. Even the Governor could not offer much reassurance. "We've done what we can in the UK," he said.
Ultimately, Mr Posen's forceful argument won through. Inflation may be high at 4.5pc now, but will not be a concern next year. Economic output, though, is falling so far below peak that viable businesses will close and workers could be on the dole so long they would lose their skills. Preventing such an inevitable slide into depression is worth the risk of inflation, the MPC ultimately decided.
As Mr Posen recently put it: "If it will take somewhat more purchases to have the same effect as when the economy was in overt crisis, but we know that the effect is significantly greater than zero, we should simply up the dosage. There is no sign that negative side-effects of this medicine increase with dosage, or are really evident at all."
Perhaps the strongest effect of QE2 will come from the confidence markets can now take from the fact that UK policymakers will do everything they can. "Shock and awe" in itself may be QE2's biggest asset, after all.
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