Nogger's Blog

30/11/11 -- This afternoon's "coordinated actions to enhance their capacity to provide liquidity support to the global financial system" may in fact hide a more sinister truth.

A report on Forbes.com here suggests that this "coordination action" was in fact foisted upon the various central banks involved following news that a major European bank was extremely close to failure.

Think Alistair Darling, RBS and the infamous "a couple of hours" from collapse quote.

So, let's make a bad thing look like a good thing.

In other news I read that the Financial Services Authority here has already warned UK banks to gird their loins for the break-up of the euro.

And in other, other news, the pledge to increase the EU bailout fund to EUR1 trillion is currently holding about as much water as Mahatma Ghandi's left sock.

"It will be very difficult to reach something in the region of a trillion. Maybe half of that," says the Dutch Finance Minister.

Half a chuffin' trillion, is that the best you can do? Didn't Merkel and Sarkozy ease market concerns just a month ago by announcing that the fund was being increased from EUR440 billion to a fanfare-heralded trillion?

Now it seems like in reality a further EUR60 billion was all that they could find down the back of the settee. Not that a trillion is enough anyway, but half a trillion won't be enough to see us through Christmas at the rate that the beggars are knocking at the door.