Last December, with Europe's financial system on the brink of disaster, the European Central Bank stunned the markets with an unprecedented intervention, offering banks across the eurozone essentially unlimited liquidity against any and all collateral for an exceptional period of three years. The ECB's surprise liquidity operation put the continent's crisis on hold. But now, just four months later, matters are again coming to a head. The big southern European countries, Spain and Italy, battered by austerity, are spiralling into recession. The deterioration of economic conditions is casting doubt on their ... (full story)