Top European banks began the week with dismal news on their profits even as state authorities worldwide continued with schemes to bolster financial sectors and weakening economies.

French banking major Societe Generale reported an 84% fall in third-quarter profit but claimed that it was well capitalized to survive the global financial crisis. Commerzbank, Germany’s second-biggest bank, too posted third quarter net loss of 285 million euros. It also said that it would need an 8 billion euro injection from the state and another 15 billion euro in guaranteed funding to secure refinancing.

Likewise the biggest home lender in Britain, HBOS Plc hiked its hit from the value of risky assets and bad loans to more than 5 billion sterling pounds even as its takeover partner Lloyds TSB predicted a sharp drop in profits.

This evaporation of profits at the top level of European banking sector has prompted many of its state authorities to inject capital into their major banks in order to avoid a systemic meltdown. France has already set aside 360 billion euros for its finance sector and has even warned that the government might take direct stakes in banks if the latter do not use the funds to lend to businesses. Moreover the European Central Bank as well as the central banks of Britain and Australia are poised to cut interest rates still more in order to boost the credit process.

The Australian central bank slashed key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point to 5%, thus joining a global wave of rate cuts in an attempt to defuse the financial crisis.

The Australian Reserve Bank said in a statement that current international economic data shows that major economies are still reeling under the impact of the credit crisis. Besides than that even China and other parts of the developing world are slowing down as well. Under such circumstances it was necessary to bring down key rates so that there would be greater funds with banks in order for lending to businesses.

The recent rate cut carried out by the Australian central bank exceeded analysts’ estimates of a half-percentage point cut on Tuesday and was the third cut in just over two months. Last month, the Australian Reserve Bank reduced the cost of borrowing by a significantly full percentage point. Australian financial policy makers are taking advantage of the fact that unlike their American and Japanese counterparts, they have enough room to lower key rates in future.

Last week the US Federal Reserve already lowered its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point to 1% while the European Central Bank is again expected to revise its rates on Thursday.

The right work culture in any organization forms the foundation of its success. This is because when employees understand and assimilate the dynamics of an ideal work culture, they perform to their optimum levels even as the consequent individual and business rewards keep everyone happy. Here are a few ways which can help a business organization to inculcate the desired work culture in its employees.

Work culture imparts a share sense of mission among the employees as it provides answers to questions like, “What is expected around here, what do we do and why do we do it”. if a business organization works to promote a sense of shared goals and clarifies every worker’s role in achieving those goals, employees will automatically be tuned to the work culture in the organization.

Another useful way to inculcate the right work culture is to offer clear, objective feedback. People learn more quickly and work well when they are told how they are doing.

Along with debriefing and summarising the performance of a worker, it is also important that the boss continue to offer sincere and positive reinforcement. Noticing an employee’s good performance and praising it goes a long way in inculcating loyalty in the worker towards an organization.

Banks across the US imposed stricter terms on all sorts of lending from home mortgages to credit cards as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1930s took its toll on the economy.

On Monday, the Federal Reserve said that its latest quarterly survey of bank lending practices showed an increasing number of banks tightening credit norms across a wide range of loan products. As many as 60% of the banks surveyed reported that they had enforced stricter lending standards on credit card debt while 65% of them said they had imposed tougher conditions for other types of consumer loans.

However the biggest impact of tighter lending norms was felt on various types of business loans with more than 85% banks reporting that they had imposes stricter conditions for “commercial and business” loans. Almost all banks surveyed – the figure going up to 95% – reported tougher standards for the lines of credit generally extended to large and medium-sized businesses.

The Federal Reserve conducted the survey over the first two weeks of October which would have been too early to show the impact of a series of bank bail-out measures taken by the government so as to ease the credit crunch in the finance markets and jumpstart the lending process.

Circuit City Stores Inc has announced that it would be shutting down 155 stores in the United States and undertaking major restructuring in the wake of falling cash position and stricter credit terms.

After the closure of 155 stores Circuit City will still be operating 566 outlets. Analysts believe that the measure will give Circuit City enough legroom to survive the holiday shopping season but after the next few months it might still have to seek bankruptcy protection. Along with pulling the shutters on 155 of its stores, Circuit City has also announced that it will explore all restructuring options in an attempt to cut costs. The company has already estimated that its store closings alone would cut down its US workforce by 17% which would also mean its exit from markets such as Phoenix and Kansas City.

Circuit City Stores is the second-largest chain if consumer electronic goods in United States. However it has continued to post losses in five of the last six straight quarters and has lost valuable market share to rivals like Best Buy Co and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. the company was compelled to take the step of store closures in order to deal with tightened credit terms following the global finance crisis and the consequent credit crunch

US auto sales for the month of October touched almost the lowest levels in the past 25 years amidst concerns that the worst was not yet over and doubts if major auto companies will be able to survive the long downturn.

Early sales result released by industry estimates revealed that auto sales in United States had fallen to their weakest monthly level since 1983. The plunge was led by GM Motors Corp which registered a steep 45% drop in sales for the month of October. After adjustment of the figures for the US population, GM said that last month was the weakest since the close of the Second World War.

Sales figures of other automakers also revealed a downward trend. While Toyota Motor Co registered a decline in sales by 29%, Honda Motor Co saw a fall of 25% and Nissan a drop of 33% in sales.

The latest data on auto sales in the United States has raised the possibility of industry-wide sales of cars and light trucks falling below 900000 units in October after dropping below the 1 million-mark in September for the first time in fifteen years.

Auto sales in Europe too are facing difficult times. While Spain witnessed a drop of as much as 40% in auto sales for the month of October, the figures in Italy were off by 19%.

Media giant Viacom Inc reported a 37% drop in third quarter earnings in the wake of a severe advertising slump which has affected the bottomline of major media companies across the United States.

Viacom’s results for the third quarter showed that net profit dropped to $401 million or 65 cents a share down from $641 million or 96 cents a share a year ago. revenues however rose by 4% to $3.4 billion as some of the impact of the advertising crunch was offset by stronger affiliate revenue, the DVD release of “Iron Man” as well as better-than-expected sales of it popular Rock Band video game.

Among the most important television networks owned by Viacom are MTV and VH1 besides other channels like Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. The media company also owns the Paramount movie studio.

Viacom executives blamed the decline in earnings on a shrinking advertising market which has greatly suffered from a downturn in spending by automotive, retail and financial services companies. Industry experts predict that the advertising market will continue to be under pressure in the early weeks of the fourth quarter as well, Viacom meanwhile is planning to jumpstart its key networks like MTV and VH1 with new series and more popular features like games and comment windows.

The US Treasury Department has turned down an appeal by GM Motors for $10 billion aid to finance its proposed merger with Chrysler, according to sources close to the discussions.

A report in the online edition of New York Times on Sunday revealed that a request by GM Motors for Treasury aid worth $10 billion to help finance its planned tie-up with Chrysalis has been turned down, citing sources close to the deal. Treasury officials have been reluctant to broaden the scope of the $700 billion finance plan, already approved by the Congress in September, to include industrial companies or to play an explicit role in the proposed merger between GM Motors and Chrysler which could cost the auto industry tens of thousands of jobs.

The Bush administration instead plans to speed up a $25 billion loan program for fuel-efficient vehicles which has also been approved by the Congress and will be administered by the Energy Department. Another reason why the Treasury could be hesitant in making a definite commitment to the auto giant might be to avoid taking any decision that might conflict with the policies of the new presidential administration. Until the government role becomes clear, it is unlikely that any big investor will be willing to back the planned merger between GM Motors and Chrysler.

Even as economic analysts continue to debate whether the recession is actually on in the United States, job losses are rising across industries as the impact of Wall Street Crisis spills over to the Main Street.

A recent report from the consulting firm Watson Wyatt has revealed that in the next twelve months around a quarter of US employers are expected to bring about lay offs. As many as 760,000 jobs have already been lost till September this year according to figures revealed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While the recent finance crisis has affected industries across the economy, some sectors seem to be more vulnerable than others when it comes to lay offs. The housing sector had been the first to face impact of the mortgage meltdown last year but now the job losses are expected to go beyond mortgage lenders and home builders to commercial real-estate and real-estate agencies.

Among other sectors which face the greatest risk of job cuts are finance, retail, publishing, auto and travel. While finance firms are being forced to reorganize and consolidate in the wake of the market crisis, retailers are being hurt by the continued fall in consumer spending. Auto makers have seen some of the worst sales in recent times and airlines are still grappling with low passenger counts. all these trends will compel companies to take restructuring steps in an attempt to cut costs.

The British Prime Minister has asked the oil-rich Gulf states to bail out struggling economies by contributing to IMF reserves, in exchange of which they would have definite say in future global economic policies.

Speaking at a breakfast address on Sunday, British PM Gordon Brown told top business leaders from Gulf states that oil-rich countries had an important role to play in the global economic order of the future. as part of their role as potential leaders, they must come forward to contribute to the International Monetary Fund so that the financial crisis could be prevented from spreading further and distressed economies could be bailed out.

Currently the International Monetary Fund comprises of dominant Western economies like the United States and other members of the Group of Seven nations. Experts on Middle Eastern affairs point out that Gulf states are not to keen on contributing to the IMF which they see as oriented towards maintaining the dominance of a Western economic order.

Prime Minister Brown further added in his address that it was in everybody’s interest to have stability in oil prices. Brown had earlier come under criticism from some oil-producing states for objecting to OPEC ‘s decision to cut supply of oil as a way of raising prices.