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BoE
Originally uploaded by jorgesoros

From somewhere in the UK: Bank of England to bail out British lender (by way of CalculatedRisk)

So the BoE Governor Mervyn King speaks loudly but carries a big check! Just yesterday, readers of vitually every news source except the WSJ, perused some tough talk from the British Bernanke about central banks providing liquidity. (His Dear John letter is here ).

Now the news is all over the British press that King more or less reversed course. Maybe he is using his "penalty rate" clause as an escape - the full details of the deal are not available yet. The FTSE open tomorrow could be fun...& the Dow after hours is already stressed.

While on the subject of central bank liquidity infusions, I'd like to update a previous report of mine noting US banks' reluctance to use the Discount Window. The Fed reported today that US banks are in fact availing themselves of the Discount Window in larger numbers & larger sums:

Banks more than doubled their requests for cash at the Federal Reserve's discount window in the latest week, according to central bank data published on Thursday.

Financial institutions borrowed an average $3.16 billion per day in the week ending Sept. 12, compared with a $1.34 billion daily average for the prior week.

Primary credit borrowings on the day of Wednesday Sept. 12 were $7.152 billion, the biggest for any single day since the aftermath of the Sept. 11 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

I stand corrected...but I'm going to sit down now...