While they both converted to “restriction removal”, it seemed until last week that the Fed and the ECB had laid out different plans, the Fed opting for a decisive, pre-emptive path, while the ECB was choosing a more prudent, data dependent and meeting-by-meeting approach. Yet, the employment report released last week provided more evidence that the softening of the US economy is proceeding at a glacial pace, while Christine Lagarde’s latest testimony at the European parliament expresses a readiness to engage in back-to-back cuts, the Governing Council –
even its hawkish wing – getting more concerned about the deterioration of the real economy.