Remember Cramer flipping out? I think we ain’t seen nothing yet.
Singaporean banks try to reassure local investors that they won’t be affected by the sub-prime mortgage problems in the United States. On France, their biggest listed bank, BNP Paribas, freezes $2.2 billion worth of funds and the European Central Bank injects around $130 billion into euro-zone money markets, trying to soothe things. Boy that’ll do wonders for inflation.
‘When the ECB starts being vocal about injecting liquidity, if they ever wanted to create a sense of panic that would be the way,’ said Tom Hougaard, chief market strategist at City Index.
Earlier, the European Central Bank said it had injected into the money market an unprecedented 94.84 bln eur in a move to meet a liquidity shortage amidst what it called ‘tensions’ in the euro area money markets.
And from Bloomberg:
“Today’s step by the ECB looks like a sign of panic,” said Sergi Martin, who helps oversee $9.6 billion at Credit Andorra in Andorra. “We might see more of this in the coming days.”
And on Technocrat, a reader relays an anecdote of how mortgage are having a dramatic effect on overall health:
Santa Clara county (south west of S.F.) has, for a few years now, suffered from little outbreaks of West Nile disease. Well, now the foreclosure rate is sufficiently high that a serious concern has become abandoned homes with unmaintained swimming pools in the yard, breeding mosquitos like mad.
It’s a small, small world.
PS: Of course, the Euro drops to the lowest it’s been in a while.