SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Today’s vote by the European Central Bank to print more than 1 trillion euros for buying government bonds and other financial assets would have some benefits, but would not solve the region’s long-term challenges. That is the assessment of two experts from the Center for Financial Policy at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Hot Topic Alert: January 15, 2015 The World Bank warns permanent stagflation faces euro-currency countries. Countering the threat, the European Central Bank (ECB) sets to unleash a round of quantitative easing (QE), which means creating money to buy financial assets, including government bonds.

Switzerland’s newest banknote begins circulating this week, and it’s an attention-grabber. It’s not because the new bills are loaded with futuristic security features, however. It’s because they are controversially large.

There was a key development on Capitol Hill last week you might have missed. The decades-old Gephardt Rule, which seeks to avoid having the U.S. run afoul of the debt limit, was given new life.