As I write this, stock markets in the U.S. are in their final hour of a rather poor session. Selling seems to have been brought on by Microsoft’s announcement that it is cutting jobs en masse for the first time ever. If you recall, Fred Hickey, a perma-bear from Barron’s Roundtable, has become bullish on companies like Microsoft (as have I). So, their announcement demonstrates that even the most solid companies are going to stumble in this downturn. I don’t think it is anything to panic about, just a reminder of how far-reaching things are getting.

Below are a few other stories from around the Internet. Others may be found at the news feed.

Enjoy.

As this deepest of recessions takes hold, an increasing number of countries are seeing outbreaks of civil unrest. First it was Greece. Later, we saw unrest in the Baltics in Riga and Vilnius. Now, Iceland is experiencing the same. These countries are amongst the hardest hit economies. Therefore, we should see these episodes as a harbinger of what is to come unless government can prevent this downturn from deepening.

When the Bush Administration gave banks money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), it was not a complete freebie. The government has received preferred shares in many institutions. This shares pay dividends to the government as compensation for the investment. Well, apparently, those dividends are becoming a bit of a problem for banks because they are eating into banks’ much needed capital by siphoning off money to the government.

This article is from special guest contributor Steve Sildon, Senior Editor for CreditCardAssist.com, where he provides tips and advice for business owners on the strategic use of short-term debt and credit cards for small business financing.

The nation is waiting with bated breath for the proposed bailout assistance and economic stimulus package promised by the new incoming administration. Many small businesses simply cannot afford to wait. Not only are American families struggling to get by each day, small and large businesses alike are struggling mightily to stay afloat with a lingering recession and the most precipitous drop in consumer demand since the Great Depression. In the past, business owners have relied on their lines of credit to help bridge the occasional gap in their short term cash flows caused, for example, by seasonal fluctuations. But these days, small business owners who lack adequate credit histories or have not yet established any credit history at all simply cannot gain access to credit at all. In a more disturbing trend, many well-established, profitable companies with excellent, long-term credit histories have found their credit lines reduced considerably, and in some cases, cut off entirely.

This past week, jobless claims settled in at a level near 600,000 after a few weeks of decline due largely to seasonal adjustments. Jobless claims were 589,000 while continuing claims were 4,607,000.

The need to bailout banks for their aggressive lending in central and eastern Europe is becoming ever more apparent. An Austrian bank has taken the lead in getting a consortium of banks together to lobby the European Union for bailout funds.

This should be seen for an undeserved handout for individual banks. I like the argument used to support this request (bolded in the snippet below) — it is self servingly cynical, but could be effective. However, it remains to be seen whether entire banking systems or individual banks will be successful in getting any funds outside of those provided by their national governments.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Given the recent news on AIG and HSBC plus the dividend cuts at KKR and PNC, I am re-posting this article.

Back in June before real panic struck, I outlined my thinking on the financial services sector in a post called “Financials: catching a falling knife.” My basic point at the time was that investors – especially sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and hedge funds – were seriously underestimating future losses in the financial services. I suggested that buying financials was like catching a falling knife and that things would only improve when these investors gave up and went home.

Since that time, those investors have indeed given up after sustaining hundreds of billions in losses. Yet, their money is now being replaced by government money, which is propping up failing and bankrupt institutions. I see this as a problem, not a solution. However, it is unclear whether the new U.S. administration, the U.K. government, the German government, and the Irish government will continue this ill-fated policy response. If they do, you can expect things to get much worse.

Yesterday was both an historic and eventful day. In the United States, we were celebrating the inauguration of a new President. I did my part over the past few days to bolster the economy by going to a number of parties and balls and consuming copious quantities of food and drink. Washington, D.C. was in a true bubble mentality because it was all Obama all the time here. I must confess to doing next to nothing yesterday except follow the activities on television.

However, as Washington was self-absorbed the global economy was reeling. The stock market collapsed, with financials taking a severe beating (I will have more to say about this in a later post). In Europe, the British Pound is in a disorderly unwind as unemployment approaches 2 million. Spain and Ireland are looking like they are in Depression already (Spain is headed for 19% unemployment while Ireland’s whole banking system is falling apart). Germany’s bailing out their banks and employers are cutting jobs across all industries. Not to be outdone, Singapore released truly dismal GDP numbers in what looks like Depression there.

All of this begs the question: what to do? Nationalization, further recapitalization, let them eat cake? I will have more to say about this shortly. In the meantime, here are the links for today.

Enjoy.

Louise Yamada is one of Wall Street’s foremost technical analyst. She is quite bearish and thinks the Dow Jones Industrial Average could go to 6000. Her advice: sell stocks.

As the financial industry further unraveled yesterday, Mathieu Robbins of the Irish Indendent asked a worthwhile question: Was RBS the idiot company of all-time in buying ABN Amro at the top of the market? Robbins says no and offers up nine other equally monstrous deals that all went seriously pear-shaped to prove it.