Draghi Hints and Backs Off More QE

The Rocky Road to Globalization:   Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank didn’t do exactly what the world thought he would.  The euro rose against the dollar, and currencies around the world also adjusted.  When George Soros made his money betting on currency fluctuations, he was one of the few people who followed these ins and outs.  Now everyone knows and reacts.

The European Central Bank unveiled a package of measures to tackle too-low inflation, from a cut in the floor for interest rates to an expansion of its bond-buying program by at least 360 billion euros ($390 billion). Investors were unimpressed.

The Frankfurt-based ECB will extend quantitative easing by six months until at least March 2017 at the current rate of 60 billion euros a month, and broaden the assets purchased to include local and regional debt, ECB President Mario Draghi said on Thursday. The Governing Council earlier reduced its deposit rate by 10 basis points to minus 0.3 percent.

The fresh stimulus coincides with a shift in global monetary policy, with the ECB adding stimulus as the U.S. Federal Reserve prepares to start its process of normalization. Even so, financial markets reacted with skepticism, sending the euro up as much as 2.6 percent and equities and government bonds down in a sign that Draghi’s measures fell short of expectations.

“The expectations were too high, and this was the minimum he could do,” said Marco Valli, chief euro-area economist at UniCredit SpA in Milan. “I think this was a mix of Draghi being held back by the conservatives, but also him wanting to keep some powder dry in case more is needed.”

Draghi