The European Central Bank has decided to do everything possible to support the European economy, which is slowing down, even lowering still negative interest rates.
Doing everything to support the slowing European economy is what the European Central Bank decided on Thursday.
It's reassuring and disturbing at the same time. Reassuring because the ECB, which will soon be chaired by Christine Lagarde, is not dead. This Thursday, she decided to lower even more interest rates that are already negative. And help banks to lend more to businesses and individuals, on even more advantageous terms. The mechanism put in place is, basically, to subsidize the banks for credit. But, of course, all this is a little worrying because it means that the experts of the ECB expect a net slowdown of the European economy.
At the same time, what could the ECB do more?
He still has the helicopter. A central bank can make as many bills as it wants and distribute them to everyone. Very serious economists advocate it. This theory was summed up by an image, that of a helicopter that would scatter bundles of notes. An idea that the president of the ECB had judged "very interesting" three years ago and is back to the taste of the day at this time. This Thursday, the president of the ECB was cooked on it during his press conference: "it is not relevant," he said. But he did not reject the idea. That is to say, all the same, how much the economic leaders are clueless and do not know what to do to support the activity.