Jim Grant: ECB Is 'Factually Insolvent'

With Greece confronting a possible restructuring of its bonds, the European Central Bank‘s holdings of those securities put it at grave risk, prominent Wall Street investment guru Jim Grant said Wednesday.

By Grant’s reckoning, the ECB’s purchases of bonds issued by debt-laden peripheral countries in the euro zone and its “discount window” lending liquidity in return for the collateral of such bonds has left it “factually insolvent.”