Commentary First, it was the Federal Reserve, then the Bank of England, and finally the European Central Bank have announced the end of their Quantitative Easing programs. By the end of March, all three central banks are expected to end their large-scale asset purchase programs, except for the European Central Bank, which will only end its pandemic emergency program. So far, only the Bank of England has started to raise short-term interest rates, but the Fed is expected to follow suit at its March Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The European Central Bank will start tapering its regular asset purchase program in the second quarter, and it is unknown whether the European Central Bank will raise rates before ending all its asset purchases. These large-scale asset purchase programs have been credited with saving the global economy from the depths of the pandemic by inflating home prices and stock prices, and …