The European Central Bank (ECB) met and voted on its monetary policy. The bank surprised forecasts as the governing council voted to cut the benchmark interest rate from 0.15% to 0.05%. It also reduced the deposit rate from -0.1% to -0.2% to discourage saving and encourage more lending. More importantly, bank president Mario Draghi said further action will likely be on the horizon. He is referring to the plan to start buying asset-backed securities in October. This is not exactly Quantitative Easing, but it will have a similar effect. According to Draghi, QE is also still on the table. During the press conference, he ... (full story)