Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Chronicles Of Depression 2.0: #235: Swaps

Fed sets $30 billion swaps lines with Nordics, Australia
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve set new currency swap lines worth $30 billion with central banks in Scandinavia and Australia on Wednesday to boost short-term U.S. dollar liquidity and help drive down interbank lending rates.

European money markets rates eased on Wednesday after the Fed's move, but analysts questioned if the pledged $30 billion in new liquidity was enough to calm markets for long.

The Fed's action comes on top of $247 billion that has already been committed to currency swaps with other major central banks, as authorities battle a global credit crunch sparked by the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market last year.

Emphasis added by me.

And we don't get the full picture. This is the first time I've read this:
Norway's has been the busiest among Scandinavian central banks, injecting both crowns and U.S. dollar currency swaps since Lehman's collapse to calm the local money market, which stopped functioning at one point last week.

Emphasis added by me.

And the bleeding of dollars just goes on and on and on and on:
The Fed has already set up a $110 billion swap line with the European Central Bank, $60 billion with the Bank of Japan, $40 billion with the Bank of England, $27 billion with the Swiss National Bank, and $10 billion with the Bank of Canada.

Emphasis added by me.

Are you beginning to get the picture that there isn't enough money in the entire world to stop this?

All Chronicles of Depression 2.0 posts. Why bother?

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