I think a lot of people would benefit from having a subreddit where questions regarding economic theory could be answered by people familiar with the subject. I’m a final year undergraduate in economics, but often have queries about very minor parts of economic theory. I have two such questions.

Today I was studying some ‘International Economics’, and didn’t really get the following: With regard to the gold standard in the past the textbook said:
A central bank that was accumulating gold might be tempted to purchase domestic assets, thereby lowering home interest rates, increasing financial outflows, and driving gold abroad.
-Does it mean buying domestic bonds and subsequently reducing the yield on these bonds?

My second question is to do with coverage of the Eurozone crisis ‘contagion’. When it’s reported that “some predict markets to attack Portugal next”, what does that entail? Is it investment banks shorting government bonds, for example?

Thanks in advance from an undergrad swamped in textbooks..