Liquid foreign-exchange reserves would pay for little more than four weeks' imports.

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Yes, the ECB has liquid foreign assets that it can sell into the market to suck out new euros it injects into the market.

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And gold is also less liquid than foreign currency and so cannot easily be used for foreign-exchange intervention to defend a currency under attack.

ECONOMIST: Losing the Midas touch

The foreign-exchange market is hugely liquid, so carry-trade positions were easily unwound.

ECONOMIST: Japan's economy and markets: So unfair | The

The foreign-exchange market, once open and liquid, gains a new restriction every second week.

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Meanwhile, New England plans to import natural gas supplies from foreign markets and has started construction on nearly a dozen shipping terminals for liquid natural-gas imports.

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"As foreign exposure to the Japanese market broadens, small-cap and less-liquid names are getting swept up, " says Lorne Steinberg, chief executive of Montreal-based Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management, a deep-value investor.

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Foreign central banks have steadily increased their holdings of sterling, attracted by its high yield and liquid markets.

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Even if its net debt were zero, a government could still foster a liquid bond market by continuing to issue bonds and investing the proceeds in domestic or foreign private-sector assets.

ECONOMIST: Coping with surpluses

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd had to talk himself out of trouble after airport officials flagged up a suspicious liquid in his cabin baggage - a jar of Vegemite.

BBC: Kevin Rudd, pictured on 15 September 2011