The Fed once again cut interest rates on Wednesday, this time by a quarter of a percentage point. So what does this mean for the U.S. economy as well as the central banks in Europe?

Now the days are not only longer but finally starting to warm, what happened in the financial world this week? Well, on Monday Mervyn King stepped up to the plate and offered a deal for UK banks. They could swap assets of unknown worth mortgage-backed securities for those of known worth government bonds .

From the Five Minute Forecast, “Citi came clean with another $12.1 billion in write-downs. They announced a $5 billion first-quarter loss this morning, too.

The loss is larger than expected, but a higher-than-expected top-line earnings number has given traders reason to celebrate, apparently. Ticker C rocketed up over 8% in premarket trading. Our best guess: A known loss is better than the great abyss. And there are still plenty of folks willing to time the bottom in any one of these behemoth Wall Street banks.

Big Gordon Brown ‘had a word’ with the chiefs of Britain’s biggest banks yesterday. “Pass on the Bank of England interest rate cut, boys!” I imagine he menaced. Today we’re presented with clear evidence of Brown’s skills as a persuader.