Now is not the time for boring central bankers

Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch are no longer. Citigroup and Bank of America are on life support. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have become boring bank holding companies. Risk and leverage have gone from instruments of wealth creation to weapons of mass financial destruction seemingly overnight. The financial system has become a shambolic locus of mistrust and multibillion-dollar losses, and the consequences will be enormous.

The epic farce that is the opaque balance sheets of European banks, sovereigns, NCBs, and the ECB, continues to occur under our very eyes. Only when one sniffs below the headlines is the truth exposed with no apology or recognition of 'cheating' anywhere.

Swiss National Bank President Philipp Hildebrand will attempt Thursday to clear his name and contain a controversy over currency trades he and his wife made last year, amid a flurry of calls in Switzerland for his resignation.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Swiss National Bank Chairman Philipp Hildebrand said on Saturday he would do all that is necessary to maintain a ceiling on the Swiss franc, but declined to provide further details.