Not happy in Frankfurt.
European markets ran for cover this morning, dropping like a string of European banks. Asian markets got tagged "gloom spreads." Oil fell dipped below $90 a barrel, on fears that people won't be able to pay for it.
Meanwhile, Stateside, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged below 10,000. Investors don't like what they're seeing over there.
The news in trading comes even as the U.S. Federal Reserve announced it's riding to the rescue of the credit and commercial paper markets (the what?). Under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, or the bailout, the U.S. aims to buy up bad loans that are sinking banks' balance sheets; that could keep more firms from going under. With the moves into the short-term lending world of commercial paper, regulators are trying to get the clogged pipes of the workaday financial system moving again.
We're aiming to talk more about this later, in the podcast.
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