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December 19, 2007
The ECB and intangibles
Yesterday, following last week's joint move by the world's leading central banks, the European Central Bank up the scale of the liquidity relief to $500 billion (see Cheap Money Is ECB's Answer - WSJ.com and E.C.B. Makes $500 Billion Infusion - New York Times). This prompts me to raise the same question I asked earlier about the Fed action: will they accept intangibles as collateral for any of this lending? As Steven Pearlstein put it this morning:
In this case, it's not only $500 billion, but $500 billion lent against almost any collateral, including a handwritten IOU from Uncle Ludwig in Dusseldorf.If that is the case, then lending intangibles might be a much safer bet.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at December 19, 2007 9:21 AM
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