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Comme nous l’écrivions dans l’article « retour sur les vraies origines de la crise », il sera toujours tentant pour les dirigeants politiques et économiques de demander à une banque centrale de payer leur gabegie, leurs inconséquences voire leurs incompétences. Retour sur les vraies origines de la crise Plus de 4 ans après le début officiel, à l’heure ou tout le monde se demande comment on va sortir de cette interminable crise, revenons un instant sur les vraies origines.
Opinion - Banques centrales : poubelles du système financier mondial ?
Alphaville » Unlisted in euroland
Remember this ? First, the Eurosystem has abolished the eligibility requirement (Sections 6.2.1.5 and 6.2.1.6) that debt instruments issued by credit institutions, other than covered bank bonds, are only eligible if they are admitted to trading on a regulated market. At the same time, the Eurosystem risk control measures for marketable assets (Section 6.4.2) have been amended. Specifically, the Eurosystem has reduced the limit for the use of unsecured debt instruments issued by a credit institution or by any other entity with which the credit institution has close links. Such assets may only be used as collateral to the extent that the value assigned does not exceed 5% of the total value of collateral submitted (instead of 10%, as previously stipulated).
The below is from the FT’s Money Supply blog that covers on all things central banky. FT Alphaville enjoyed it so much, that we had to ask Claire if we could nick it cross-post. She kindly agreed. The ECB has said the size of its longer-term refinancing operations, or LTROs for short, is unlimited. That means the banks can ask the ECB for as much as they like above the minimum amount of a cool €1m. Most borrowers have tended to ask for something closer to a €1bn.
Alphaville » Q&A: The ECB’s three-year loans
Il s’agit du montant des prêts à trois ans accordés par la BCE dans le cadre d’une opération dite d’open market. Ces opérations sont courantes depuis le début de la crise, mais celle-là en particulier est à plusieurs titres remarquablement exceptionnelle. En effet, c’est non seulement la première fois que la BCE propose aux banques des refinancements à aussi long terme et à un taux aussi bas (1%), mais il s’agit aussi d’un record en terme de montant. Le dernier record dans la discipline remontait à juin 2009, avec 442 milliards de liquidités injectées dans le système bancaire pour une durée de un an. Avec 489 milliards octroyés à pas moins de 523 banques, on atteint des sommets. La pratique n’est donc pas nouvelle : depuis le début de la crise des subprimes , les banques centrales se sont attachées à renflouer les banques par des refinancements toujours plus faciles pour les banques privées en manque de liquidités.
Joyeux Noël et bons baisers de la BCE | Reflets
L'appel est pratiquement unanime, tout du moins en France, pour que la Banque centrale européenne devienne enfin une banque centrale «normale»! C'est-à-dire qu'elle se transforme en prêteur en dernier ressort pour des Etats endettés. Mais est-ce vraiment normal? Et l'accord européen dit de «Merkozy» n'est-il pas qu'une gesticulation supplémentaire? Analyse.
BCE: qu'est-ce la «normalité» pour une banque centrale? | Mediapart
The economist Thomas Schelling began his 2005 Nobel Prize lecture with a famous declaration. “The most spectacular event of the past half century is one that did not occur,” he said. “ We have enjoyed 60 years without nuclear weapons exploded in anger [pdf] .” In the same way, the imminent collapse of the euro area will likely be the greatest non-event in recent financial history. In light of recent events in the euro area, in which “nuclear threats” of euro expulsion have been issued to Greece and borrowing costs have spiked to unsustainable levels for Italy, the European political and economic situation can perhaps best be understood through the game-theory analysis for which Schelling and Robert Aumann won their Nobel Prize. The key issue is how the European Central Bank (ECB)—noncommittal in its intentions but still the only institution in Europe (or elsewhere) with the resources to credibly prevent financial contagion—plays its hand.
RealTime Economic Issues Watch | Why the Euro Doomsayers Are Wrong
econoclaste - Le blog d'econoclaste
On assiste depuis peu à un véritable concert, de toute part, demandant à la BCE d'intervenir pour soutenir les dettes publiques des pays de la zone euro, et déplorant qu'elle ne le fasse qu'à doses homéopathiques, sans calmer la panique des marchés. J'ai participé au concert . Pourquoi ne le fait-elle pas?
ECB May Hit Bond Sterilization Limit in January, Rabobank Says - Bloomberg
The European Central Bank may find it difficult to neutralize its government bond purchases after January, Rabobank said. The ECB mops up the liquidity created by its purchases of distressed government bonds -- 183 billion euros ($251 billion) so far -- to prevent them from fueling inflation and ensure it can’t be accused of financing profligate governments. Rabobank economist Elwin de Groot estimates that there is a “natural limit” of 300 billion euros the ECB can sterilize. “If it maintained a pace of 11 billion additional purchases each week, the average amount of purchases in the period August- September, it would hit that natural limit by mid-January,” De Groot said in a note to investors today. The Frankfurt-based ECB began buying Italian and Spanish government bonds in August after Europe ’s debt crisis spread.Though if you’re asking about sterilising purchases of debt, as a technical limit to the central bank’s printing euros, to monetise government bonds, to resuscitate the eurozone… The ECB is the dam. The central bank is not stemming the selling of Italian bonds (notably by banks) which is helping to drive yields up, and potentially into a death spiral at these levels.
Alphaville » What’s the hard limit to ECB hard money?
Oct 25 ( Reuters ) – Euro zone leaders will call on the European Central Bank to go on buying bonds in the secondary market to support the likes of Italy and Spain, according to draft conclusions obtained ahead of a summit on Wednesday… The thing is, even agreeing that the ECB is the only credible balance sheet left in Europe, we’re not sure why everyone thinks the central bank will agree. …We have summarised quite a bit. It’s more complicated than that, although it ultimately comes down to much greater ECB support to eurozone sovereigns. Actually, the points of the plan are (in sequence): The ECB provides liquidity to the EFSF. The EFSF buys Greek bonds from the ECB and guarantees bank debt, not sovereign debt (remember, backstopped by ECB liquidity).
Alphaville » The ECB is not here to save the world
François : Je voudrais revenir à la fondation de cette Banque Centrale « indépendante » – c’est-à-dire indépendante des gouvernements, des démocraties, mais pas forcément indépendante de la finance. Là, à la création de la BCE en 1998, sous Jospin, après le Traité de Maastricht, sous Mitterrand, c’est comme si la gauche oubliait tout un acquis de son histoire. Je veux dire : en 1870, les Communards n’osent pas toucher à l’or de la Banque de France – qui prête 250 millions à Thiers pour venir les écraser ! En 1924, le Cartel des gauches se heurte à ce qu’ils appelleront eux-mêmes « le mur de l’Argent » . En1936, le Front Populaire se heurte à la Banque de France – qui est « indépendante » , c’est-à-dire qui est aux mains des financiers.
Contre la BCE, vive l’inflation ! Partie II - FAKIR | Presse alternative | Edition électronique
Contre la BCE, vive l’inflation ! partie I - FAKIR | Presse alternative | Edition électronique
Antoine, pendant ses vacances, a visité la Banque Centrale européenne, à Francfort. C’est que, au fond, discrètement, cette ville est devenue notre nouvelle capitale. Mais comme, sur place, le guide n’était pas terrible, à son retour de congé, il a interrogé Frédéric Lebaron, à la fois sociologue et économiste, auteur de La BCE et la révolution néolibérale – et qui collectionne des fiches sur tous les banquiers centraux de la planète... Antoine : Je me suis rendu à Francfort parce que, ces temps-ci, on a l’impression que c’est devenu notre nouvelle capitale. Régulièrement, la Banque centrale réclame plus de « flexibilité sur le marché du travail » .The ECB announced yesterday that it’s going to be throwing a bunch more cash at European banks. No one knows how much it’ll end up being, exactly, but it’ll almost certainly be in the hundreds of billions of euros. The commentary on the decision, some of it very good , can get extremely technical extremely quickly. And so, at the request of Nick Rizzo, here’s a quick English-language explanation of what’s going on. At heart, what the ECB is doing is very simple: it’s lending money to European banks for 12 or 13 months at low interest rates.
Explaining the ECB’s latest program | Felix Salmon
FRANKFURT Oct 4 (Reuters) - The ECB has abandoned long-pursued plans to reduce troubled banks' dependency on its funding, central banking sources have told Reuters, after it failed to find a suitable solution and due to fears it would reduce pressure on governments to tackle the problems. The European Central Bank had been working on the highly sensitive plans for over 18 months in a bid to steer itself away from the emergency support of the banking sector that is blurring the role of its monetary policy. Two euro zone central bank sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity said ECB policymakers had now stopped pursuing the plans, however, concluding none were better than the current combination of limit-free ECB liquidity and national central banks providing Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) to the hardest hit banks.
ECB has abandoned dependent banks plan - sources | Reuters
Posted by Joseph Cotterill on Sep 21 14:38. Unveiled on Wednesday as part of the ECB’s usual tidying up of collateral eligibility criteria. This one seems to affect (unsecured) bank bonds a bit though… First, the Eurosystem has abolished the eligibility requirement (Sections 6.2.1.5 and 6.2.1.6) that debt instruments issued by credit institutions, other than covered bank bonds, are only eligible if they are admitted to trading on a regulated market. At the same time, the Eurosystem risk control measures for marketable assets (Section 6.4.2) have been amended.
Alphaville » ECB collateral changes…
ECB announces change in eligibility of debt instruments issued or guaranteed by the Greek government
Emergency Liquidity Assistance