By Walter Hamilton, Los Angeles Times, September 15/16, 2011

The action by the Federal Reserve and central banks of Europe, England, Japan and Switzerland will give European banks ample access to dollars and ease concerns about ripple effects of Greece's debt crisis. Global stock markets rallied.

The Federal Reserve and four other central banks moved to inject billions of U.S. dollars into Europe's troubled banking system, giving a dose of confidence to investors who have grown worried about the ripple effects of the Greek debt crisis.

The coordinated action is intended to give large European banks ample access to dollars, thus heading off the risk of a lending crunch that could gum up the credit markets and worsen the global economy.

European banks, particularly in France, have had trouble raising dollars from U.S. investors and financial institutions, which are scared off by the Europeans' heavy exposure to Greece. European banks need the cash to make loans to their U.S. customers and repay their own dollar-denominated borrowings.

Central bankers are heeding lessons from the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc....