European Central Banks pitch in

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Stacey Vanek-Smith: While lawmakers hash it out on Capitol Hill, European Central Banks and the U.S. Federal Reserve are pumping billions into financial markets. Stephen Beard has more.

Stephen Beard: The Bank of England alone has lent $30 billion to the money market this morning. The European Central Bank is injecting a similar sum. And the Fed will join the party later today. The action triggered by last night’s failure to push through the Paulson bailout and the Washington Mutual collapse Howard Wheeldon is with the BCG brokerage group. He says the central banks’ money is urgently needed because the major commercial banks are now even more terrified of lending to each other.

Howard Wheeldon Banks just want to hoard their cash. They don’t want to do anything that smells of risk. They haven’t got the confidence to do business amongst themselves.

He says that today’s central bank intervention is no more than a Band-Aid. Without a radical measure like the Paulson plan, …more turmoil is inevitable.

In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.