Governments and Central Banks in Panic Mode

In case some people were not sure, these below are not signs that everything is fine and that the green shots of 2009 are not producing an impressive massive harvest... quite the opposite.

Euro Central Banks Seen Providing Up to $270 Billion via IMF

(Bloomberg) — 02 Dec 2011 — A European proposal to channel central bank loans through the International Monetary Fund may deliver as much as 200 billion euros ($270 billion) to fight the debt crisis, two people familiar with the negotiations said.

At a Nov. 29 meeting attended by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, euro-area finance ministers gave the go- ahead for work on the plan, said the people, who declined to be named because the talks are at an early stage. The need for a new crisis-containment tool emerged as the effort to boost the 440 billion-euro rescue fund to 1 trillion euros fell short.

Swiss Government May Consider Negative Interest Rate Policy 

(Bloomberg) — 01 Dec 2011 — Switzerland’s government said it may consider additional measures including negative interest rates to aid the country’s central bank in its fight against the appreciation of the Swiss franc. [...]

Stocks surge on Central Bank liquidity offering

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) — The central banks of the U.S., the euro region, Canada, the U.K., Japan and Switzerland agreed to cut the cost of providing dollar funding via swap arrangements, the Federal Reserve said, and agreed to make other currencies available as needed.

China said earlier today it will cut the reserve requirement ratio for banks by 0.5 percentage points from Dec. 5, while data on U.S. business activity and the employment and housing markets topped economists’ estimates.

 U.K.’s Cable Urges ‘Unlimited Powers’ for ECB Amid Euro Crisis

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — U.K. Business Secretary Vince Cable said the European Central Bank needs unlimited powers to support the euro and the region’s debt-ridden economies.

“If a monetary deal’s going to work, the central bank has to have unlimited powers to intervene to support economies, and indeed banks, to prevent collapse,” Cable said in an interview on BBC television’s “Politics Show” today. “They need to have that clearly at a European level, and that’s one of the issues that hasn’t yet been adequately clarified.”