In a WSJ interview, portfolio manager Axel Merk urges the European Central Bank (ECB) to make sure that their emergency cash infusion is temporary.

The ECB's extraordinary step was "excusable at the end of the year, but if that extends further, you're going to have a serious issue here where the government is meddling in private industry," says Axel Merk, manager of Merk Hard Currency Fund. "Then we could have more distortions, and there could be other folks, corporate issuers, who should have access to credit being shut out."