At the start of the euro crisis, the continent’s politicians bristled with pride and independence, saying they did not need support from the International Monetary Fund. Soon enough, the IMF was allowed into the kitchen, but the rest of the world’s governments were excluded. Yet the crisis has now reached the point at which it threatens a teetering global economy, so with five central banks acting in concert on Thursday to backstop Europe’s banking systems, a new era of global financial
co-ordination has begun.
The catch is that the latest intervention addresses just one part of the continent’s problem. Banks in Europe fund themselves partially with dollars. Because of fears for their stability, investors have been balking at buying their commercial paper. Now, with the help of central banks in the US, Japan, Britain