ECB Member Ducks EIR Questions

European Central Banker Member Ducks EIR Questions

November 12, 2009 (LPAC)—The European Parliament Special Committee on the Financial and Economic Crisis held its first hearing Nov. 10, with a series of European "experts." EIR News Service got a last-minute request from a Committee member to forward proposals for questions to one of the "experts," European Central Bank (ECB) Board member Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo.

The questions, aimed at forcing out the state of ECB insolvency, were: 1. How much toxic waste (assets) has the ECB bought or accepted as collateral from banks? 2. Which banks have gotten money from the ECB so far, and how much? 3. Do those banks keep that money in the ECB?

The Committee member reported that Gonzalez-Paramo tried first not to answer the questions, and did so only after being additionally requested to do so by the Committee chairman. Looking uncomfortable, Gonzalez-Paramo actually ducked the issues, saying that some banks keep their deposits in the ECB, some not. There is an "excess of liquidity," he said, estimated at 150 billion euros, and the market is too "fragmented."

Sounds like the banks of the United States, which, while bathed in over $10 trillion in Federal Reserve bailouts, securities guarantees, and special loan facilities, have deposited $800 billion of "excess reserves" in 2009 back with—the Federal Reserve, which is paying them an interest rate it will not reveal.

The other "experts" heard were: Paul Jorion, Andre Sapir, Verena Ross, Fernando Fernandez Mendez de Andes, Carlo Vivaldi (Unicredit Austria), John Monks (European Trade Union Confederation), Jörgen Homlquist (EU Commission).