Week of mixed messages helps prolong crisis

IT has been another week of extreme confusion in global markets.

The week started off with a story that a deal had been agreed at the G20 meeting in Washington to put together a €3 trillion fund to buy the bonds of and support the weaker countries in the eurozone and ring fence the vulnerable European banks — in other words, pour capital into the banks that would suffer heavy losses as a result of the seemingly inevitable Greek sovereign debt default.

The German chancellor then poured cold water on this version of events, ruling out the possibility of a Greek default.