Last night the Eurozone leaders agreed with the IMF on a €750bn emergency funding package to help protect various sovereign bond markets from speculative attacks. The package takes the form of €440bn from Eurozone member states, €60bn from the EU balance of payments facility and €250bn from the IMF, this is over and above the €110 earmarked for Greece already. And although the plan is for Eurozone nations both Sweden and Poland will also be taking part.
The new move is described as being ‘Shock and Awe part II‘. The move came after a 14 hour meeting which was in part prompted when Barack Obama called Angela Merkel & Nicolas Sarkozy to use resolute steps to reign in the contagion that had markets in turmoil last week. The first week in May was marked by a spectacular 1,000 pt drop in the Dow Jones industrial average on Thursday night and of wild volatility on the Sovereign debt and forex markets. Meanwhile, the Dow story remains somewhat of an