http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2011-11/17/content_23945781.htm Ireland, Britain and France unite to criticise Berlin's approach http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,798400,00.htm FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank could effectively force troubled countries out of the euro if it wanted to by refusing to accept their debt as collateral in its lending operations, the head of the German debt agency said on Thursday. Euro zone and International Monetary Fund officials have discussed the idea of the European Central Bank lending to the IMF, to provide the fund with sufficient resources for bailing out even the biggest euro zone sovereigns, officials said. The European Union said today it is helping Greece negotiate with Switzerland in a bid to claw back some of the €60 billion in unpaid taxes believed to be hidden in Swiss banks.
GERMANY came under attack from Ireland, Britain and France yesterday as each country criticised Berlin's handling of the financial crisis that has engulfed the continent, threatens to tear apart the euro and plunge the continent into a deep depression.
Stock markets see-sawed as the Bank of England warned that Europe's problems could damage the global economy, but later rallied as a senior official in the US Federal Reserve said the crisis may warrant coordinated action by the US central bank and the European Central Bank.
There was evidence of frayed nerves everywhere as even cautious analysts warned that a financial disaster was possible within days.
"Time is running out fast," said Citigroup chief economist Willem Buiter. "I think we have maybe a few months -- it could be weeks, it could be days -- before there is a material risk of a fundamentally unnecessary default by a country like Spain or Italy."
http://www.independent.ie/business/european/euro-response-wrong-germans-told-2937575.html
"If you look at the treaties, if I am not completely mistaken there is no way to get out (of euro)," Carl Heinz Daube, the managing director of the German finance agency said during a panel discussion at euro finance week.
"But hypothetically one could think that the ECB might not be willing any longer to take the sovereign bonds of one, two or three or four countries, so this might mean technically they might have to step out," he said.
He added that he didn't know if that would be the best solution to the debt crisis but said that the euro zone had to use a single powerful institution, and preferably one of its existing ones, to tackle the troubles.
"We need some kind of institution which is powerful to support the next steps."
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/european-central-bank-could-force-exits-from-euro-if-wanted-german-debt-head/articleshow/10770668.cms
"Some discussions on this have taken place... It could be one way of getting around the legal restrictions on the ECB," one official with knowledge of the talks said. A second official said ECB lending to the IMF was being explored.
The idea appears as the rising severity of the euro zone debt crisis, which now threatens to engulf Italy, or even France, makes policymakers desperate to get the ECB, with its limitless resources as a central bank, more involved in the rescue efforts to buy governments time for reforms.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/17/us-ecb-imf-eurozone-idUSTRE7AG18920111117
The first feedback from a team of European Commission experts seconded to Athens produced "few concrete steps" forward, said Horst Reinchenbach, the German head of a task force trying to help Athens reform its economy.
"Solutions are being explored to provide Greece with an adequate way to increase tax revenue, taking into account the vast amounts channeled to Switzerland by Greek nationals," Reinchenbach's first quarterly report said.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1117/greece-business.html
Thursday, 17 November 2011
The Technocratic Revulsion Begins: Photos And Video As Thousands Of Italians Protest Monti's "Banker" Government
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/technocratic-revulsion-begins-photos-and-video-thousands-italians-protest-montis-banker-governm
European banks pay funds to swap unwanted bonds
Europe's banks are paying insurers and pension funds to take their illiquid bonds in exchange for better quality ones, in a desperate bid to secure much-needed cash from the European Central Bank.
Banks are relying on the ECB as the main provider of short-term funding, with interbank lending mostly shut down because of the European debt crisis. But they are now running out of the right types of collateral to secure the money.
That's why they are increasingly swapping securities with institutional investors, which they can then use to secure more funding from the central bank.
__._,_.___
__._,_.___
Posts
