REAL Inflation is staggering in Europe, more so when taking into account their modest and declining, purchasing power. Even things that are cheap to US, like Coca-Colas, or McDonalds or econoboxes are quite expensive to Europeans. Not all europeans can afford cars, so they just take the subway or drive scooters. This in stark contrast to the US where even the homeless have cars (well almost). Perhaps the ECB should understand that they just can't completely control inflation (since international oil and agricultural prices are beyond their control); and lower rates to improve the -incredibly high- unemployment rate in Europe.
yeah, In amsterdam a 20 oz bottle of coke costs 2 euro! Thats almost 3 bucks here. I saw a bottled water that i swear was about 8 oz for 2.50 euro. I was in the airport in france and now i know airports usually have more expensive items, but they wanted 5 euro for a coke. ($7.50!!!) I mean, even movie theaters here were saying "what a rip off!" A 10 minute taxi drive in amsterdam cost me 55 euros or $81 dollars (where as here the same ride would be about 15 dollars for the distance i went) Gas is also very expensive pushing 9 bucks per gallon in the netherlands.
On one side, the ECB has to understand that it cannot control some aspects of inflation (such as oil). On the other, they have a mandate to control price stability - even as the sacrifice of growth. They are holding true to that and I, for one, admire their gusto. They're in a pickle just like most central banks in the world today. But they're smart enough to understand that cutting rates will not help them.