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NEWS AT A GLANCE

Treasury teaches credit management

As Wall Street sinks under a credit-based crisis, the Treasury Department is starting a long-planned program today to teach young people about managing credit and other financial matters. The $750,000 campaign, called "Don't let your credit put you in a bad place," includes a Web site and TV and radio ads. "The events unfolding in the last few months can be seen as a national teachable moment," said Treasury education official Dan Iannicola. (Los Angeles Times) Facing another day of financial drubbing, central banks in Europe, Japan, and Britain injected more than $150 billion to add liquidity to the market. (MarketWatch) Markets in China and Japan closed down between 4.5 percent and 5.5 percent today. (AP in Yahoo! Finance)

HP to cut 24,600 jobs in EDS integration

Hewlett Packard said it is cutting 24,600 jobs, or almost 8 percent of its workforce, over three years as it works to integrate Electronic Data Systems. HP bought EDS in August for $13.9 billion. The cut was much larger than expected. (AP in Yahoo! Finance) About the half the job cuts will be in the U.S. HP said they will save about $1.8 billion a year, and will incur a record $1.7 billion charge for the fourth quarter. (The New York Times) "This is inevitable for any integration of this size," said analyst Ashok Kumar at Collins Stewart. "It's the right step in the right direction for HP." The deal should help HP take on IBM by strengthening its consulting and other service offerings. (Los Angeles Times)

AIG fights to remain solvent

American International Group, the top U.S. insurance company, was hit by a series of credit rating downgrades late yesterday. The downgrades will complicate AIG's efforts to secure financing to stave off bankruptcy or a lesser crisis. Officials at the Federal Reserve are working with Goldman Sachs to put together a $75 billion financing package for AIG. (The New York Times) AIG was thrown a stop-gap lifeline by New York State, which allowed the insurer to borrow $20 billion from its own assets. (Reuters) The credit downgrades may trigger $13 billion in collateral calls from debt investors. "There's a systemic risk if AIG isn't saved," said analyst Benoit de Broissia at Richelieu Finance in Paris. (Bloomberg)

Apple's iTunes gets some company

The music industry, suffering from increasingly gloomy CD sales, is getting behind a new music-streaming Web site in partnership with News Corp's MySpace. The site, MySpace Music, will allow members to listen to a huge catalog of music free of charge. Designed to compete with Apple's iTunes, the site will earn money through advertising and paid downloads via Amazon. A music business based on advertising "could well dwarf today's $30 billion global recorded music industry," said Greg Scholl of digital music distributor the Orchard. (The New York Times) Also targeting iTunes, Best Buy agreed to buy online music pioneer Napster for $121 million. (Los Angeles Times)

BEST COLUMNS OF THE DAY

Paulson's big gamble

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson "knows when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em," says Steven Pearlstein in The Washington Post. When Wall Street banks said they wouldn't buy Lehman Brothers without a government safety net, he called their bluff. And his gamble that Lehman's collapse won't cause a market meltdown will look like a stroke of genius if yesterday's 504-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average isn't "followed by another and another." So far, given the magnitude yesterday's news, the trading has been "remarkably orderly." But if the steep losses weren't a one-day event, "Paulson's gamble was a foolish one," and it would have been better "putting a bit more of taxpayer funds at risk."

Lehman and you

"When an institution of Lehman's size and clout goes under," says Jonathan Burton in MarketWatch, "it's understandable to wonder if your money is safe." The answer is "in a word, yes," but this is still a good time to remember that when it comes to crises like this, "perspective, not panic, is in order." Several investing veterans suggest sitting out the market for the next few days. The U.S. stock market is now down about 25 percent since its peak last October, but it almost certainly has farther to fall. Avoid, or proceed very cautiously with buying financial stocks, and if you're going to sell, sell slowly. "Now is not the time to overhaul your investment portfolio."

GOOD DAY FOR: Good timing, as Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain and trading division chief Thomas Montag are eligible for more than $47 million in combined payouts if they leave or are given lesser positions after Bank of America completes its buyout of Merrill. Thain joined Merrill last December, and could get vested shares worth $11 million; Montag, hired last month, would get $36 million in stock and stock options. (Bloomberg)

BAD DAY FOR: Washington Mutual, after Standard & Poors cut its credit rating to junk, following the lead of the other two major rating agencies. Washington Mutual dropped almost 27 percent, closing at $2 a share yesterday, before S&P issued its downgrade. This will make it harder for WaMu to raise capital, if needed; S&P said the thrift has enough capital and liquidity to survive for a while. (CNNMoney.com)

NOTED: Crude oil futures dropped below $92 a barrel in New York early today, in one of the few bright aftershocks of the turmoil on Wall Street. Oil's fall, the steepest two-day drop in almost four years, was attributed to concerns that Wall Street's pain could crimp demand. "There's a good possibility prices will fall further before they stabilize," said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch in Frankfurt. (Bloomberg)

This column was written by Peter Weber and edited by Harold Maass of TheWeek.com.