The week
ends on a negative note. Central banks continue to fight inflation, pretending
to ignore banking sector troubles. The European Central Bank (ECB) increased
its interest rates by 0.50 percentage points last week, while the Federal
Reserve (Fed) added another 0.25 p.p. this week. Stock indexes are sliding down
to close the week on a negative territory.
The reason
for this week’s drop is not primarily the Fed, but the Treasury Secretary Janet
Yellen, who rolled out an expansion of deposit insurance above $250,000.