by Calculated Risk on 1/22/2015 06:10:00 PM

More on the ECB from Neil Irwin at the NY Times: Mario Draghi’s Bombshell Is Europe’s Last, Best Hope to Return to Growth

At first glance, Mr. Draghi’s plan emulates the Federal Reserve’s QE3 program: the third round of quantitative easing, or bond buying, announced in the United States in September 2012 and which most likely helped the acceleration in the American economy over the last two years. ...
...
There are two big differences.

First, it is late. When the Fed pulled the trigger on its open-ended bond buying, in 2012, annual inflation was running at 1.6 percent in the United States, not far below its 2 percent target. The economy was growing at a steady if unexceptional rate. The Fed was looking to get ahead of its problem of sluggish growth.

The European Central Bank, by contrast, has spent the last two and a half years seemingly looking for any excuse not to take the action announced Thursday ...

The second big difference with the American program is that the E.C.B. is only dabbling with risk-sharing across Europe.

The ECB is "late", but the real problem is the fiscal authorities (especially in Germany).

Friday:
• At 10:00 AM ET, Existing Home Sales for December from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The consensus is for sales of 5.05 million on seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) basis. Sales in November were at a 4.93 million SAAR. Economist Tom Lawler estimates the NAR will report sales of 5.15 million SAAR.