http://online.wsj.com/…

Central banks around the world pumped short-term cash into strained money markets for the second day in a row Tuesday as markets reeled amid a fast-moving crisis that is reshaping the contours of the global financial system.

With interest rates on the overnight loans banks make to one another rising sharply on market unease, European policy makers boosted the amount of funds on offer. The European Central Bank injected €70 billion ($100.17 billion) in one-day funds into euro-zone money markets, more than double its Monday injection of €30 billion. The Bank of England offered £20 billion ($36.05 billion) in extra two-day funds, atop Monday’s £5 billion in extra three-day funds.

The Swiss National Bank also made extra overnight funds available, but a spokesperson declined to say how much. The Bank of Japan injected ¥2.5 trillion ($23.84 billion) into Japanese money markets in two separate operations.

Demand surged as commercial banks scrambled for short-term cash. Bids from 56 financial institutions totaled more than €102 billion in the ECB’s auction, which set the central bank’s policy rate of 4.25% as the minimum bid rate. The Bank of England said bids totaled £58.1 billion, more than triple the £20 billion on offer.

Think of this kind of action as someone kicking the side of a kiddie pool in order to try to counteract the waves created by someone inside it… without being able to see the water’s movement. You don’t have enough information to cancel it out. You’ll just make the water more turbulent.

The best thing the central banks and governments can do is nothing.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/…

CROOKED MEPs are trousering cash meant for workers’ wages, it was revealed yesterday.Some hire “ghost” staff - then claim thousands of pounds from the £100million annual allowance. Others recycle the handout by employing unqualified relatives, a bombshell report on MEPs’ expenses found. In many cases the whole £125,000 allowance is paid to just ONE person on the staff. One assistant received a “Christmas bonus” worth 19 TIMES their monthly salary. Taxpayers’ money is also being diverted to party funds, with the internal probe describing the corruption as “massive and widespread”. Brussels had wanted to cover up the abuse - but EU fraudbusters have demanded a copy of the report. Last night Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies - one of a handful of people who have seen the audit - called it “dynamite”. He said: “The allegations should lead to the imprisonment of a number of MEPs. It’s embezzlement and fraud on a massive, massive scale.” All 785 Euro MPs - including 78 Brits - are entitled to about £125,000 a year for staff, as well as a £62,000 yearly salary and lavish expenses. But spot checks on 167 MEPs found many employee payments for 2004 and 2005 were not being properly accounted for. The scandal eclipses the case of Tory MP Derek Conway, who last month was exposed for paying his sons thousands for doing virtually nothing. Mr Davies said it made the Conway affair “look like small change” and called for the findings to be released to the public. The report is a closely-guarded secret and only MEPs on the budget control committee have been allowed to see it. An EU Parliament source hinted at a cover-up, saying: “We cannot make this report available to the public if we want people to vote in the European elections next year.” A spokesman for the Parliament claimed: “The document is not secret - it is confidential.”

The article speaks for itself.

http://arstechnica.com/…

If there’s a sense of déjà vu permeating a rather massive corporate campus in Redmond, Washington right now, it wouldn’t be surprising. The European Commission, which regulates competition for the European Union, today announced a brand new antitrust investigation against Microsoft.

Like the investigation that resulted in a €497 million fine in 2004, the new investigation will look at whether Microsoft abused its dominant market position to give some of its own products an unfair advantage. This time around, the EC will be proceeding on two separate fronts.

The first area of investigation will concern the interoperability of some of Microsoft’s products, including Office 2007, the .NET Framework, and some of Microsoft’s server products. The investigation stems from a complaint filed by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, which alleges that the new Office Open XML does not play nice with competing products.

The EC will also fully investigate a complaint filed late last year by Norwegian browser maker Opera. In it, Opera accused Microsoft of illegally tying Internet Explorer to Windows operating systems and not following “fundamental and open” standards for how web browsers render pages. Opera wants the EC to force Microsoft to begin offering versions of Windows without IE installed and to make the browser more standards-compliant.

Sad. Opera can’t compete with Microsoft so they try to use the government to hurt their competitors. I give them props as a software development firm but their legal department appears to be filled with sore losers.

Microsoft is not a monopoly. They have a huge market share because they where in the right places at the right times with the right software. You want to out do them you’re going to need to do more than provide a decent browser for free. There’s a decent amount of competition in that game. Why not focus on the mobile market and stop whining.

As for Office… if you don’t like its interoperability or lack thereof than don’t use it. Problem solved. Latex, RTF, etc are supported by plenty of apps.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/…

Shares slumped again on both sides of the Atlantic today after the European Central Bank was forced to inject a record 95 billion euros (£65 billion) into money markets as mounting global credit jitters sparked an abrupt scramble for cash by financial institutions.

The unprecedented emergency action by the Frankfurt-based ECB outstripped even the scale of its intervention on the day after the September 11, 2001, terrorist strikes on the US, when it pumped in 69 billion euros of liquidity to stabilise credit markets.

The move badly unnerved already rattled investors and sent shares tumbling in London and New York as it fuelled anxieties over the global credit squeeze. Amid record trading volumes in the City, the FTSE 100 index lost 122.7 points, or 1.9 per cent.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted by 387.2 points, or 2.8 per cent, closing at 13,270.7, in its worst losses since a 416-point plunge in February, when investors were shaken by a drastic sell-off in China’s stock markets.

“[ECB] made clear that it was ready to provide unlimited funds at 4 per cent and ended up providing some 94.8 billion euros.” “… the US Federal Reserve providing $24 billion as part of daily money market operations, against only $5 billion provided on Thursday last week.” Inflation here we come! Seems the $24 billion didn’t counter act the euros given the dollar ended up trading higher and metals dropped a bit. I wonder how the market would have reacted if they failed to do this.