Mario Draghi made his debut as head of the European Central Bank with a surprise interest rate cut to boost a eurozone economy. The quarter percentage-point cut takes the bank's main interest rate down to 1.25 percent in an attempt to boost confidence in the 17 countries that use the euro and prevent an expected slowdown in the last three months of the year from turning into an outright recession. But while he began his eight-year term with a dramatic anti-crisis measure, Draghi gave a sharp rebuff to anyone expecting more help from another direction: the bank's controversial program to buy government bonds. The point of the purchases, which are intended to keep the Greek crisis from spreading to much bigger euro economies like Spain and Italy, is to drive down the borrowing costs for those countries. The program has kept Europe from a financial meltdown since August.
