July 20th, 2017 4:05 PM by Narbik Karamian
To put all this in plain English, the ECB buys bonds (similar to the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing program that started in 11/2008 and ended in 11/2014 to help keep the U.S. economy functioning). This puts downward pressure on rates around the world (more so in Europe than in the US, but we still get some indirect benefit). There was some concern at the end of June that the ECB was getting closer to announcing it would buy fewer bonds. While that day will likely come eventually, today's announcement assures markets that it hasn't been discussed yet.