What's happening: After starting the year as the top sector for buybacks, tech companies have dramatically slowed their pace as the trade war has escalated, data provided to Axios by Schoonover shows.

• Tech accounted for more than one-third of last year’s buybacks, but has dropped to just 22% of a smaller total this year as companies have lost confidence that buybacks are an effective use of capital, Schoonover says.

Be smart: The lack of confidence is evidenced by the significant drop in buybacks starting in May after President Trump escalated the trade war by raising tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.

Yes, but: The data shows that the 4 tech companies that bought back large amounts of their stock saw significant outperformance versus the market.

• JP Morgan analysts last month noted in a white paper that as fewer companies choose to buyback stock, those who do will likely see higher returns.

Go deeper: Too much money (and too few places to invest it)

What's happening: ECB governing board member Olli Rehn said the central bank will announce a fresh package of “impactful and significant” stimulus at its September meeting that's expected to include “substantial" bond purchases as well as cuts to the ECB’s already-negative interest rate, WSJ reported.

• Analysts expect the central bank will cut rates to -0.5% and restart its quantitative easing program with around $56 billion a month of fresh bond purchases.

What they're saying: "Unprecedented policies will be needed to respond to the next economic downturn," a report released Thursday from the BlackRock Investment Institute argues.

• The report was authored by former Fed vice chair Stanley Fischer, former Swiss central bank chief Philipp Hildebrand, former Bank of Canada deputy governor Jean Boivin and other former central bankers.
• "Monetary policy is almost exhausted as global interest rates plunge towards zero or below...There is not enough monetary policy space to deal with the next downturn."

The intrigue: The paper urges the introduction of "helicopter money," or “going direct” with "an explicit and permanent monetary financing of a fiscal expansion" otherwise known as central banks giving money directly to the public.

The bottom line: Central banks are gearing up to stave off a recession and highly respected former central bank leaders now see quantitative easing and negative interest rates — both considered extraordinarily and controversially powerful when they were first discussed — as insufficient to deal with the world's problems.

Go deeper: Fund managers see highest probability of recession since 2011