European Central Bank

Inflation has eased in Europe as prices fall for electricity and other items that were affected by supply shortages from the Ukraine war.

The bank, much larger than SVB, found problems in its financial reporting. Its Saudi funders ended support, but Swiss officials may step in.

A lot of investors were betting that the Bank of Japan would join other central banks in hiking rates to beat back inflation.

It's raised its benchmark deposit rate by 0.75% — to 0.75% — and may raise further. But Europe is also facing recession worries.

As borrowing costs rise across the 19 nations that use the euro, worries about the currency bloc's stability grow.

Like the U.S., Europe is also trying to cope with surging inflation. But so far, the ECB has avoided hiking interest rates as a way to deal with it. That looks like it's about to change.

The U.S. economy might have an easier time achieving a "soft landing" than economies in Europe and elsewhere.

It'll also end its large-scale bond-buying program. Central bankers are trying to tame inflation — like their U.S. counterparts at the Federal Reserve.

Until the ECB became the first major central bank to try it, making interest rates negative seemed like defying economic gravity.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Congress “may need to do more” to cushion the blow from the pandemic.