How the US central bank is propping up Europe’s dodgiest economies

It's all about America this week. The world's markets will be on tenterhooks until Wednesday's over. By then, we should have a good idea of the results of the mid-term elections. More importantly, the Federal Reserve will have revealed how much more money it plans to print. The Fed's money printing has annoyed leaders of many countries. The US (regardless of what its politicians say) seems to want to drive the dollar lower. The idea is that this will make its exporters more competitive. But that's bad news for rivals, particularly export-dependent countries such as Japan.