It has become clear that we are entrenched in a global financial crisis and economic downturn, stemming from an acute crisis of confidence. The only upside (if one can call it that) to the situation would be that depressed world demand has helped to stabilise international prices and curb inflationary pressures.
8 See Rostagno, M., U. Bindseil, A. Kamps, W. Lemke, T. Sugo and T. Vlassopoulos, (2016), “Breaking through  the zero line: the ECB’s negative interest rate policy”, Brookings Institution, Washington D.C., 6 June 2016. Presentation available on the Brookings Institution website.