On Thursday, the European Central Bank (ECB) said that it had pumped 95 billion euros [130 billion dollars] into the eurozone banking market to allay fears about a sub-prime credit crunch as lending slowed. The move represented the ECB's single largest intervention in the banking sector since the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001. —BBC in "Mortgage concerns hit US markets"

I know you hate to see interventions in the "free market" as much as I do. Workers' wages should float, and they should have health care only if they can afford it or if there's a shortage of labor and they need to be kept alive. But with the worsening "credit crunch" (all the fault of the working class defaulting on their mortgages, let me add), some people stand to lose a lot of money if the government doesn't step in.

The European market indexes have been declining, much like the NASDAQ, Dow Jones and S&P. Apparently some unwise Europeans were dabbling in the American sub-prime market and got burnt—

The latest trigger for the slump was an announcement by French bank BNP Paribas that it was suspending three investment funds worth 2bn euros (£1.35bn) [$2,738 million] because of problems with the US sub-prime mortgage sector.

Now investors are afraid there's not enough money to keep the Monopoly game going. How to finance those leveraged buyouts and mergers? It's getting so bad that the only way you can borrow money is to have money, and what's the point of that?

There also were reports that the US Federal Reserve was doing something similar to ensure that there was enough cash available for banks to use.

President Bush is expecting a "soft landing" for the markets. Consider the source.

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The demand for the Federal Reserve to "do something" is heating up. "We have Armageddon." Don't miss this video.

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Tags: * finance banking The Fed economy Europe