A spree of economic props dominoed across Europe today (Thursday) all sharing the same theme – stopping the global financial crisis from getting worse. The European Central Bank took a drastic step to protect the Eurozone economy from shrinking further by lowering its benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point to 2.5%.

Can you talk a currency into gaining value? It seems Fed Chief Ben Bernanke and European Central (ECB) President Trichet think so. They’ve been telling anyone who will listen how serious they are about fighting the inflation monster that would cheapen their currencies.

In the currency market, the dollar tanked against the euro. Late Thursday, the euro was trading at $1.5568 vs. $1.5435 on Wednesday.