Business this week

America's Federal Reserve intervened twice in the markets to boost liquidity. On March 7th it promised to provide up to $200 billion in temporary loans to banks and bond-market dealers. And on March 11th the Fed promised to lend up to $200 billion of Treasury bonds for a month at a time, accepting mortgage-backed securities as collateral. Other central banks announced more modest measures. Stockmarkets rallied, but some analysts wondered if yet more action wouldn't be required. Meanwhile, Hank Paulson, the treasury secretary, was due to outline new regulations for the mortgage industry to alleviate some of the problems that led to the credit crisis. See article

Payroll employment in America fell by 63,000 in February, the biggest monthly drop in nearly five years. Almost all employment sectors shed jobs, with the biggest declines in manufacturing and construction. However, the addition of 38,000 government workers to the payrolls stopped the total figure from being even worse.

The dollar dropped to a record low of $1.55 against the euro as investors speculated that the Fed would slash interest rates again. The dollar also fell to a 12-year low against the yen, below the ¥100 level.

High society

Société Générale announced that its euro5.5 billion ($8.5 billion) share issue was massively oversubscribed. The French bank tendered the offer to bolster its capital after losses that arose from a huge rogue-trading scandal (in which another bank employee was detained briefly). SocGen will hope its new riches can dissuade other banks from trying to buy it, though the prospect of an auction may be precisely why investors wanted its shares.

A mortgage-bond fund affiliated to Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm, said it was close to collapse after its lenders moved to seize assets amid the fund's financial woes. The fund dealt only in mortgage-backed securities with top-notch credit-ratings, and not the subprime market, indicating how far the credit crisis has spread.

With credit markets paralysed and the enthusiasm for acquisitions dampened, Blackstone Group's quarterly revenue tumbled, to $345m from $1.3 billion a year earlier. The buy-out firm has seen its share price fall by half since its initial public offering last June. See article

Fasten your seat-belts

Southwest Airlines grounded 38 of its jets in response to the Federal Aviation Administration's claim that the company had operated flights using aircraft that missed safety checks for structural cracks. The budget carrier faces a $10.2m civil penalty and has placed three employees on leave.

Boeing lodged a complaint against the American air force's decision to award a $35 billion contract for new flying tankers to a joint project from Northrop Grumman and EADS. Boeing argues that its tanker is less risky and costly than its rival's and that the air force's evaluation process was flawed. Some American politicians are angry that EADS, a European company, should be given a slice of such a big defence deal.

Meanwhile, EADS reported its first annual net loss in five years, of euro446m ($588m), on the back of production delays at Airbus, its largest subsidiary. The weak dollar also hurt Airbus, lopping $1.1 billion off its revenues (aircraft are traded in the currency).

Google completed its takeover of DoubleClick, first announced last April, after the EU's competition commissioner gave her approval. The deal solidifies Google's lead in online advertising; rivals, such as Microsoft, had raised objections. America's regulators gave the merger their blessing three months ago.

The upper house in Japan's Diet rejected the government's choice of Toshiro Muto as governor of the Bank of Japan, leaving it somewhat in limbo. The central bank's present governor, Toshihiko Fukui, retires on March 19th. Japan's upper house is controlled by opposition parties, which think Mr Muto's former career as a top civil-servant in the finance ministry ties him too closely to the ruling party.

Having a blast

Incitec Pivot, which makes fertilisers, made a bid for Dyno Nobel, a dynamite-maker, valuing its Australian compatriot at A$3.3 billion ($3 billion). Its business is booming partly because of the demand for explosives from companies mining for metals and other commodities.

Alistair Darling unveiled his first budget since becoming Britain's chancellor last summer. In addition to sin taxes on alcohol and tobacco, Mr Darling proposed to introduce a charge on plastic bags in 2009 if voluntary action by supermarkets did not reduce their circulation. See article