El Banco Central Europeo "inyecta" $500,000 millones de dólares al "mercado"

Esta es la verdadera dimensión de la enorme crisis financiera mundial. El martes pasado, el Banco Central Europeo se ve en la necesidad de "inyectar" €348,000 millones (unos $500,000 millones de dólares) al mercado en UN día, para mantener a flote ese barco que ya hace agua por todos lados. Si las cuentas no fallan, se han inyectado a los mercados más de UN BILLON de dólares en menos de 3 meses y ni así se ha logrado como mínimo estabilizar las cotizaciones en las bolsas. Esta es una crisis como no se ha visto desde la gran depresión, con consecuencias aún insospechadas.

ECB awards more than 500 bln dlrs in two-week funds

FRANKFURT (AFP) - The European Central Bank said Tuesday it had allocated more than 348 billion euros (500 billion dollars) in a two-week refinancing operation aimed at providing banks with ample credit through the end of the year.

The cash was made available exceptionally at a fixed rate of 4.21 percent, aiming to ease a chronic lack of funds in the money markets where the commercial banks have virtually stopped lending amid fallout from the collapse of the US subprime home loan market.

It was the ECB's most exceptional refinancing operation since it acted in early August to offset the emerging credit crisis sparked by a meltdown of the US market for high-risk mortgages.

The amount was also nearly two times greater than the ECB's estimate of actual refinancing needs of 180.5 billion euros but below the total bids for the funds, which reached 377 billion euros, the central bank said.

The ECB had said Monday it would allow banks to borrow an unlimited amount of funds and would set the rate well below the 4.9 percent levels seen in similar operations over the past few days.

"Specifically, as a minimum the ECB will satisfy all bids at or above the weighted average rate of the MRO settled on 12 December, i.e. 4.21 percent," the bank had said.

Since the US subprime market collapsed, central banks have injected cash into the system in an effort to ensure that the commercial banks continue to extend credit to businesses.

Last week, the ECB, along with the US, British, Canadian and Swiss central banks said they would provide more than 60 billion dollars to money markets over longer periods and under easier-than-usual conditions in a joint effort to get credit flowing freely again.

In its announcement on Monday, the ECB told banks they could have a nearly unlimited amount of funds at the below-market level of 4.21 percent through the end of the year, a delicate time for financial institutions which face increased demand for cash just as they need to close their accounting books.

For its part, the Fed began on Monday an operation to inject 20 billion dollars into the market. The results of that are to become known on Tuesday.