[Marxism] Government Debt Purchases in EU

[S. Artesian]

Financial Times:

Eurozone banks have sharply increased their holding of government debt in a sign of the deteriorating economic climate....

Bank holding of eurozone government bonds rose by E115 billion between November 1 and the end of January-- the biggest three month rise since September 1997--- to stand at E1299 billion, according to the European Central Bank...

This is the highest amount since February 2007, when banks were buying all kinds of securities in a booming market place...

...According to UBS... banks bought 75 per cent of the total E77billion of eurozone government bonds issued in January, much higher than usual.

....analysts believe the banks are under pressure from the governmeents to buy sovereign bonds to soak up the record levels of debt that has been issued to pays for economic stimulus packages and bank bail outs...

The ECB raised the cost of using asset-backed securities in exchange for cash or high quality bonds, such as  US Treasuries, in September.  It also announced in January that it would tighten the rules further in March.

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Doesn't sound like the US Treasuries are crowding out eurozone sovereign debt, does it?