Markets are surging across Europe and futures are pushing higher after a Bloomberg blast suggesting that the European Central Bank could lend €100-200 billion ($135-270 billion) to the IMF, presumably which the fund would use to purchase PIIGS sovereign bonds (particularly those of France or Spain) or lend to the PIIGS directly.
Such a plan would allow the central bank to sidestep opposition to further lending by states like Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland because the ECB draws on cash from the national central banks independently of politics.
The silly part of it is that the scale of this lending looks tiny. It seems pretty clear at this point that some kind of unlimited guarantee is required by the ECB or eurozone countries (i.e. through eurobonds). Even the €1 trillion ($1.35 trillion) size that EU leaders were proposing for the EFSF was seen as too small to rescue the eurozone—the numbers economists have been talking about were closer to €3 trillion ($4.05 trillion).
Either way, this rumor—as well as hints of ECB intervention in general—does suggest that EU leaders are doing something to address the crisis, which is surely positive news.
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