Fed acts Sunday to prevent global bank run Monday
Acting quickly to prevent a run on major global financial firms, the Federal Reserve cut its discount rate by a quarter percentage point to 3.25% and offered to lend money to a longer list of firms than ever before.

Global markets tumble
LONDON – Global markets plunged Monday on news that JPMorgan Chase, backed by the U.S. government, had to rescue troubled Bear Stearns, with investors struggling to gauge how much worse financial markets could get.

Bear, credit fears sink stocks at open
NEW YORK – Stocks are tumbling in early trading as nervous investors retreat following JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s buyout of faltering investment bank Bear Stearns Cos.

Subprime Lending’s Smartest Guys in the Room
Corporations “restating” earnings; fawning business media; chief executives diverting the blame; Securities and Exchange Commission probes initiated after the damage is done. This Enron-WorldCom déjà vu is brought to us courtesy of America’s housing industry, and the standard narrative is that irrationally exuberant buyers drove up home values while banks made too many loans to the wrong people. The truth, however, is that this latest boom-and-bust is about stock prices as much as housing prices—and that’s where the real scandal lurks.

Who is the next bailout target? (by Chris in Paris at AMERICAblog)
Just how much money do these freeloaders want from taxpayers? The previously pro free market crowd is now calling for bailouts, hand over fist, because we just can’t have a domino effect… The worst of this bailout is that the US government is committing so many billions without even debating where the money goes or who is it helping. Are we now picking up the tab for Wall Street bonuses? Let Wall Street pay back the commissions and bonuses that were based on this trash and then let’s talk.

George Speaks, Badly (by Gail Collins, The New York Times)
Watching George W. Bush address the New York financial community Friday brought back many memories. Unfortunately, they were about his speech right after Hurricane Katrina… I recalled a day long ago when my husband worked for a struggling paper full of worried employees and the publisher walked into the newsroom wearing a gorilla suit. The country that elected George Bush — sort of — because he seemed like he’d be more fun to have a beer with than Al Gore or John Kerry is really getting its comeuppance. Our credit markets are foundering, and all we’ve got is a guy who looks like he’s ready to kick back and start the weekend.