Private equity companies that bought out public companies like Chrysler now need immediate cash because of the credit crisis. This does not bode well for the employees of those companies.

It seems that private equity funds (I also call them Kings of Junk) that were hit badly by recent junk bond crash are engaged in violent cost cutting at the companies they now own. That will include lay-offs, unprofitable branch closures and chopping corporations into something that could be re-sold to other hedge funds.

In a highly unusual move, the Fed changed rules last week for big banks so they could borrow billions to prop up their brokerages.

But the cracks keep getting bigger and bigger and there is no way to contain them. I am still expecting the next big shoe to drop: Commercial Real Estate as discussed in the closing remarks of Foolish Concerns, Foolish Optimism, Foolish Logic. There is another big shoe to drop too, and that shoe is jobs.

Bernanke has his hands full and there are simply too many cracks to plug. He will fail.

FYI: Blogs by industry insiders with heavy coverage on the credit crisis. All are highly recommended.

Calculated Risk

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

Naked Shorts

Also check out

Minyanville and Seeking Alpha

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Windows Genuine Advantage servers have been malfunctioning and marking legitimate copies of XP and Vista as counterfeit.That’s right, the program that Windows PCs are forced to contact on a regular basis to prove their copy is legit decided to mark them as pirated instead. Microsoft is reporting the problem is fixed but offers no apology or explanation because,  like the Bush Administration, they never apologize for anything. Feh.

As mentioned here before, my next laptop will be a Mac. Rather than create products people genuinely want, Microsoft loads them down with useless bloatware  and anti-piracy schemes that backfire. Clearly, they are in decline. As an example, hardcore geeks and long-time Windows users are reporting serious, ongoing, major problems with Vista. Microsoft is quickly losing the core of their support.

From Jim Louderback, retiring editor of PC Magazine

The upshot is that even after nine months, Vista just ain’t cutting it. I definitely gave Microsoft too much of a free pass on this operating system: I expected it to get the kinks worked out more quickly. Boy, was I fooled! If Microsoft can’t get Vista working, I might just do the unthinkable: I might move to Linux.

Do it! I’m running I’m running Ubuntu Linux on one PC and find it preferable to Windows, it’s faster, easier to use, and doesn’t lock up for no apparent reason.

Noted software developer Joel Spolsky says

I’ve been using Vista on my home laptop since it shipped, and can say with some conviction that nobody should be using it as their primary operating system — it simply has no redeeming merits to overcome the compatibility headaches it causes.

Chris Pirillo on Spolsky’s comments

Now, when one of the world’s leading software developers states this (privately or publicly), you have to wonder why I’ve been taking such a beating for my position on Microsoft’s flagship desktop products. Initially, I didn’t complain about Vista or any Office product without always giving Microsoft suggestions for improvement. I only complain about the things I care about - as should you.

But they stopped listening a long time ago - and the Microsoft MVP program is about as effective in influencing product direction as eating graphite makes you a better swimmer.

Why bother with Windows when better, more secure, vastly more stable and less buggy operating systems exist?

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