Monday morning headlines

Fed injects money: Looking to loosen up credit, the U.S. central bank is taking steps to make billions of dollars available to banks here and abroad. All told, the amount of cash loans available to banks will double to $300 billion from $150 billion. (AP)

Office market gets hit: Nearly 8 million square feet of local space could be at risk, with particular exposure in Century City, downtown and parts of the SFV. Lehman Bros., AIG and Merrill Lynch, all victims of the current financial meltdown, hold lots of L.A. office space. From the LABJ:

Any of that space that hits the market would follow what has already been dumped by Countrywide Financial Corp., which also was acquired earlier in the year by Bank of America. In addition, federal regulators that have seized Pasadena’s IndyMac Bank are expected to break leases on dozens of branch sites across the region.

William Morris deal: The century-old talent firm has sold its Bev Hills headquarters for $143 million to a consortium led by South American investors. The price amounted to $783 a foot, about twice the average price of a high-end L.A. office building. From the LAT:

"We are extremely happy with the properties," Eduardo Covarrubias, a co-founder of Cape Horn Group, said in a phone call from Chile. Owning them offers a sense of financial certainty in an uncertain era, he said. "They give us ideal protection from inflation at a time when there is turmoil in the financial sectors," Covarrubias said. "We're putting our money into hard assets that are going to preserve their value."

Drilling in Long Beach: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that will allow for future oil exploration and drilling in the Port of Long Beach. Assembly Bill 2165 allows the State Lands Commission to negotiate a contract with the city and Occidental Petroleum to search for reserves in the western end of the Wilmington Oil field. (Press-Telegram)

Variety still for sale: A private equity group led by Boston-based Bain Capital (co-founded by Mitt Romney) is considered the leading suitor, but progress has slowed because of the credit crisis. The bidding is for both Variety and Reed Elsevier Group's portfolio of 17 trade publications. (LABJ)