The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Did the ECB print Eur489bn worth of money in December?

From UBS's European economists before the ECB's 489 billion euro, 3 year term funding injection for European banks:

We would regard any number above 300, given the discussion above on the drop in repo operation from ECB since last week, as a sign that banks use the 3 year repo not only for liquidity purpose but also to do some carry trade. This would be akin to ECB printing money to finance governments via the banking system. To that extent it could be seen as a form of QE.

at 12:06 PM