Central banks 'trying to treat an infection without antibiotics'

Why monetary policy has failed so far

While the US economy and its stock markets have roared ahead in recent years, Europe has languished behind.

Suffering from divergent underlying economies, a slowdown in China and - more recently - a trade war which has further dampened demand for some of its key exports, European GDP growth has made for depressing reading. Growth in the latest quarter came in at just 0.2%, although this was met with some relief amid fears that Germany, the region's largest economy, was about to fall into recession. Can central banks keep fending off a global downturn? While Germany ultimately avoided that outcome, its paltry growth rate hardly instils confidence about the outlook for the region. P...