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This is Money
Pressure is mounting on the Bank of England to intervene in the credit crisis after money-market lending rates jumped to a 20-year record and economists warned that central banks have "not properly recognised the dangers" ahead.
Liquidity crisis grows as Libor rates gap hits 20-year high
Hedge funds suffered their worst month of redemptions in seven years in July after some $55bn (27.4bn) was withdrawn by jittery investors concerned by lowered returns amid the global credit crunch.
Investors withdraw $55bn from hedge funds
Gordon Brown called on the City yesterday to publish more information about the risky financial instruments that lie behind the credit crunch. As a second British bank revealed its exposure to the US sub-prime crisis, the Prime Minister said that he would support international calls for greater transparency.
Fears that the UKs biggest banks have heavier exposure to US sub-prime mortgages than previously believed grew last night when Alliance & Leicester (A&L) became the second bank to reveal that it has tens of millions of pounds invested in risky asset-backed securities.
Brown calls on City to be more open about risky financial instruments
Banks are poised to draw on a crisis Bank of England liquidity facility in response to the paralysis in money markets, which took a firmer grip yesterday.
Banks set to raise reserves in bid for crisis funds
Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann has lifted hopes that the crisis in the money markets is easing by claiming liquidity has begun to return and that Germany's largest bank is performing well. "In the last few days, there have been signs that the markets have begun to stabilise. Liquidity is returning," he told a banking conference in Frankfurt.
Deutsche Bank boss calms investors with declaration that 'liquidity is returning'
The US Federal Reserve yesterday urged mortgage companies to help borrowers who fall behind with home loan repayments by offering deferral plans and renegotiating the terms of their debt.
Fed urges US mortgage lenders to help struggling borrowers
The soaring price of wheat is not an isolated phenomenon. All around the agricultural markets prices are rising. Corn doubled last year, while the price of soybeans is more than 50pc higher than it was 12 months ago. In a time-lagged rerun of the explosive growth in the price of energy and metals earlier in the decade, crops are fuelling a surge in food prices that's picked up the ugly, but inevitable, tag "agflation".
Global growing problem of wheat production