Germany: Bank bail-outs

This week, the German cabinet agreed to propose to the parliament a scheme to enable the country's banks to remove remaining "toxic" assets from their balance sheets. How? The banks will be able to swap their toxic debt for government-backed bonds worth 90% of the value of the toxic assets. In return they will pay an annual fee. This toxic debt will be "stored" for up to 20 years. If approved by the parliament, the scheme will be financed by Germany's existing 500bn euros bank rescue fund.

NB: I recall, some weeks ago, that a proposal had been agreed by the German government cabinet (a historic coalition between the country's two main parties, the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats) that would allow for the temporary "nationalisation" of any German banks, if needed. I have not kept up with the issue (eg was it finally agreed and was it passed by the 2 chambers of the German parliament?), and I am not sure how it relates to the above scheme.
The Bank of England's announcement that it would keep interest rates unchanged at 0.5%. The Bank of England also said it would pump an extra BP 50 bn into the UK economy via purchases of government and corporate debt, extending its planned spending to £125bn.

UK jobs and manufacturing in March

In March: UK manufacturing output continued to fall, but the fall was not as severe as had been expected (and that is supposed to create optimism??). In Q1/09, UK unemployment went up by 244,000 to 2.22 million to 7.1% of the workforce.

Several central banks decided to cut their interest rates today.

Several central banks decided to cut their interest rates today.

The European Central Bank has cut interest rates in the Eurozone to a record low of 1%, from 1.25%. It is the seventh time the ECB has lowered its key rate since October 2008, when it stood at 4.25%.
Iceland's central cut rates from 15.5% to 13% in its third cut this year. Denmark cut rates from 2% to 1.65% and the Czech central bank cut rates from 1.75% to 1.5%.