As you say, they are running scared. Everyone can smell it. It is not likely to induce further lending, but rather cut back on market transactions entirely in the credit markets. As for the stock market....I don't know how they will keep propping that up.

It sounds like the Fed has opened the discount window to brokers. This is unparalleled. At the very least, if the brokers are going to get the same lender of last resort privileges as the banks, they should be regulated like banks. If the brokers survive this crisis, it now seems inevitable that their licenses are going to be converted into bank charters.

Where this puts the SEC as regulator I don't know, but in less turbulent times this would be viewed as a power play by the Fed. Given the circumstances, though, this is probably desperation.

I mean, it's not good for anybody, financially, but politically, it's terrible for Repubs.

Dow futures down 165, Yen is trading at 96.8/USD, Euro about $1.58--pretty close to twice what it was worth in 2002.

The markets don't care much for this, do they?

This is it, folks. The emperor officially has no clothes.

Maybe we need a bit of lightning up? Ok, right now, big worries, banks want to hold onto funds, call/reduce loans to ventures whose financial merits are not clear ... so effectively money supply (availability of credit) is contracting. Thru various means "system" is injecting new capital (credit). Fair enough ... what has to (should be) done by any central banker type who intends to act to meet requirements of the job.

Later, situation will stabilize ... ie, lending to worthwhile ventures will resume, and plenty of new funds available. Recovery happens, etc. It is not as bad long term average as it looks now, but things will get worse before they get better. But - as Chancy Gardiner says - after the winter, comes spring.

In Tokyo, the region’s largest stock exchange, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index was trading at an almost three-year low. By midday, the index dropped 4.2 percent to 11,726.99, falling below 12,000 for the first time since August 2005.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/17/world/asia/17market.html

Oh, it ain't gonna be pretty. Better pack a hip flask with your bag lunch:

Light, sweet crude for April delivery spiked to a record $111.42 a barrel — up $1.21 from Friday's close — in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange midmorning in Singapore. It later slipped back to $111.08 a barrel around midday.

S-P at C&L

this computer is lame.
i can barely sneeze what it needs rebooting.
especially after visiting C&L for some reason. so i don't visit there every day like i usedta.

now i gotta reboot...