The Federal Reserve took dramatic action last night on multiple fronts to avert a crisis of the global financial system. On Sunday, the Fed helped JPMorgan purchase the investment bank Bear Stearns in an effort to save the nation’s fifth largest investment bank from collapse. The Fed also announced an emergency quarter-point cut in its discount rate. It has also agreed to become the lender of last resort for other investment banks in effort to prevent firms from going under. The Wall Street Journal reports this marks one of the broadest expansions of the Fed’s lending authority since the 1930s. The fall of Bear Stearns has shocked the business community. JPMorgan bought the company for just $270 million. A year ago Bear Stearns was valued at $20 billion. As part of the deal, the Federal Reserve agreed to lend JPMorgan $30 billion to secure some of Bear Stearns’s mortgage investments. If the assets decline in value, the US taxpayer will bear the cost. The government-led bailout is the first of its kind since the Great Depression. In response to the bailout of Bear Stearns, stock markets in Asia and Europe tumbled. Meanwhile, the price of oil has jumped to a new all-time high: nearly $112 a barrel.