Sovereign liquidity - Mike Whitney’s morning thoughts

Mike wrote to me this morning,

"Whoa! Have you seen this article? Sovereign liquidity, what lies beneath

"Am I misreading this or has Trichet pulled out the bazooka? My question: High ranking US officials from the Treasury flew to Spain yesterday. Do you or Phil think the Fed is on a euro bond spending spree to prevent a crash (because the Germans won’t support EU–QE?) Never a dull moment, Mike"

Excerpt:

Here’s a perfect end to a week in which the ECB has apparently bashed peripheral bond markets into submission. Apparently.

Watch those bid-offer spreads.

We couldn’t quite believe this chart of the bid-offer spread on ten-year Spanish government bonds, made by Divyang Shah of IFR Markets, when we saw it. But it checks out, and is worrying (click to enlarge):

(Still not at the May 2010/Greek crisis nadir… yet.)