♦ The U.S. consumer price index fell 1.0 percent in October compared to the previous month, the biggest drop in 61 years. [WSJ]
♦ Citigroup is liquidating another one of its hedge funds after it plunged 53 percent last month. Also: Citi's stock dropped to its lowest level in 13 years yesterday. [FT, NYP]
♦ Just because he spends his days taking aim at Wall Streeters doesn't mean Andrew Cuomo left any bigwig financiers off the guest list for his birthday party/fundraiser on Dec. 2. [NYP]
♦ The CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler who pleaded poverty in front of Congress yesterday flew their private jets to get there. [ABC News]
♦ Most hedge funds are pulling back right now, but hedge fund king John Paulson actually celebrated on Monday night with a lavish dinner for more than 100 at the Metropolitan Club. [DB]

♦ Treasury officials say as many as 1,800 institutions may apply for government investments in the next few weeks. [WSJ]
♦ GM hasn't been so lucky extracting cash: The Treasury has turned down a request by the automaker for $10 billion to help finance a merger with Chrysler. [NYT]
♦ Henry Kravis's KKR is delaying its plan to go public on the NYSE until 2009. [CNNMoney]

♦ AIG is already running out of the $123 billion in cash it was provided by the Federal Reserve, which means the authorities are slowly waking up to idea that something else might be going on. [NYT]
♦ The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.3 percent annualized rate in the third quarter as consumer spending declined at the fastest rate in 28 years. [MW]
♦ The Fed's half-point rate cut yesterday? It won't do much to prop up the economy. [NYP]
♦ Andrew Cuomo has asked banks to provide his office with bonus data. [NYT]
♦ Some hedge funds are still raking in cash from investors. Steve Cohen's SAC is down 5.5 percent in 2008 (and he's moved most of his funds into cash), but he's accepting new funds beginning in January. [Bloomberg]

♦ Better news from abroad today: global stocks rebounded overnight, with shares in Hong Kong climbing more than 14 percent. [CNNMoney]
♦ Goldman Sachs will name its new partners today; it's expected to be the smallest such group in the firm's history. [Telegraph, Clusterstock]
♦ The average hedge fund was down 8.4 percent in October. Layoffs in the industry are mounting: Glenn Dubin's Highbridge Capital is the latest fund to announce cuts, trimming 10 percent of the company's staff. [NYP]
♦ Barclays is seeking to raise $10 billion from Russian banks. [WSJ]
♦ Fidelity may lay off 4,000 employees. [Boston Globe]

♦ Yesterday's sell-off is expected to continue today. [WSJ]
♦ Even Goldman Sachs is cutting. The firm plans to cut 10 percent of its 32,000 employees. [WSJ]
♦ The glory days of hedge funds are over, as you're probably aware. [NYT]
♦ Credit Suisse reported a $1.08 billion loss during the third quarter. [DB]
♦ The inquiry into the financial crisis on Capitol Hill continues. Today's guest piñata will be Alan Greenspan. [NYT]

♦ In a extraordinarily bold move, the U.S. will use $250 billion to take equity stakes in major financial institutions like Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase as part of an effort to restore confidence in the system, unlock the credit markets and "avoid financial collapse." [WSJ, NYT]
♦ The government's move isn't unprecedented, although not everyone is very happy with the "partial nationalization" approach. [NYT, WaPo]
♦ Global markets continued to rise overnight as investors responded to news of the government's plan. [Bloomberg]
♦ Notwithstanding the bailout, some hedge fund titans like Steve Cohen, John Paulson, and Israel Englander are staying on the sidelines and keeping their billions in cash. [WSJ]

♦ Invoking emergency powers, the Fed will create a special fund to buy up commercial paper—short-term debt that companies typically use for such things as payroll—in an effort to ease up the credit markets. [Bloomberg]
♦ Wachovia and its sparring suitors, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, have agreed to a two-day truce as negotiators try to work out a resolution. [WSJ, DB]
♦ Did you miss Lehman CEO Dick Fuld's testimony before the House yesterday? A recap. [WSJ, FT, NYT]
♦ Bank of America reports that profits plunged 68% in the third quarter. [CNNMoney]

♦ The legal battle between Citigroup and Wells Fargo raged over the weekend as both banks sought the upper hand in their bid for Wachovia. A Fed-led settlement which would divide Wachovia's assets may put an end to the dispute. [NYT, WSJ]
♦ Bank of America has agreed to settle government claims related to Countrywide Financial. The total price tag could exceed $8.6 billion. [WSJ]
♦ Dick Fuld will make his first appearance in weeks when he speaks before a House committee today. [NYP]
♦ Eli Lilly has agreed to acquire ImClone Systems for $6.5 billion. [Reuters]

YouTube announced a new channel called "Your Money" yesterday, describing it as place to "learn more about borrowing, investing, and saving, along with Financial News and Analysis." YouTube said the channel would feature content from Bloomberg, Reuters, Wall Street Journal. But now YouTube Your Money is gone. So is the blog post announcing its arrival. A Twitter message from YouTube PR, a Google search result and a logo screen-captured by Epicenter remain and are copied below. I have two theories on why this happened.Since Wired links to Bloomberg News as the source of its information, one possibility is that Bloomberg published a story about the new channel before they were supposed to. That kind of thing seems to happen a lot at Bloomberg these days. Seeing the article, YouTube PR panicked and pushed out a blog post that triggered a Twitter message. Then Bloomberg pulled its story and YouTube PR followed suit. Update: In an updated post, Wired now calls the link to Bloomberg their own "big goof." Another possibility: Bank of America, named as a channel partner, pulled its support from the project because it either doesn't have cash to throw at experimental sponsorships or would prefer to keep a low brand profile while weathering the current financial crises.

♦ Now comes the hard part. After winning the vote in the Senate last night, the bailout bill will head to the House for a Friday vote. [NYT, WSJ]
♦ John Thain will be staying put at Bank of America, contrary to initial rumors. He'll become the combined company's president of global banking, securities and wealth management. Who wants to hunt for a job in this economy? [MW]
♦ "Warren Buffett has become the new triple-A credit rating system." [NYT]
♦ Dick Fuld's last day in his corner office may come tomorrow. [WSJ]
♦ First-time applications for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level in seven years. [Bloomberg]

Thinking about making a run on your bank from the privacy of your own home? If you're a Bank of America customer, good luck — the site has been down since 8 a.m. PST, and the problem has seems to have grown worse since it started. At first, users couldn't verify their "SiteKey" to access their accounts. The company then disabled online access and posted a note to the homepage, pictured. I couln't even access the homepage until just now, possibly because millions of customers are now desperately checking and re-checking the site to see when access is restored. Now that I can get in, it looks like I still have some money! So don't panic — I'm sure Bank of America, like the rest of America's financial services industry, has everything under control.

• Yesterday's 504-point drop was the worst day for the Dow since 2001. [NYT, WSJ]

• After frantic takeover talks with Bank of America and Barclays ended over the weekend—and after the U.S. government declined to provide a bailout—Lehman Brothers was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this morning, marking an end to the 158-year-old firm. [Bloomberg, NYT, WSJ]

Bank of America, the "official" bank of the New York Yankees, is now finalizing a deal to become the primary sponsor of the new Yankees stadium, a pact that could be worth $20 million a year. The likely losing bidder: Jamie Dimon's JPMorganChase. [NYP]

• Earnings are down at Eddie Lampert's Sears. [Bloomberg]

• Yahoo and Carl Icahn have reached a settlement: Icahn and two of his nominees will join the board of the company. [AP]

• An upgrade from Morgan Stanley is expected to help out Lehman's stock price, which fell 11 percent yesterday amid talk of a firesale. [Reuters]

• InBev may need to raise its offer for Anheuser-Busch by $7 billion to win over the company's board. [Bloomberg]

Shares of San Francisco-based Visa jumped more than 30 percent today in the largest initial public offering in U.S. history. Visa issued 406 million shares at $44 each to raise almost $18 billion. More than half of the IPO take is going to its shareholder banks, which include Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. Convenient: While the IPO has long been planned, the cash will come in handy right now. (Photo by AP/Richard Drew)

Samir Arora, the Valley's most talented flim-flam artist, has convinced investors to put in a fresh round of financing into Glam Media, his online-ad network. The deal could be announced as soon as tomorrow. The amount raised: Between $30 million and $100 million, we hear, valuing the company at as much as $400 million. A lofty figure, given Glam's scant sales — but Arora had sought a $200 million round, and a valuation in the range of $800 million to $1 billion. The premise of that valuation: The 25 million monthly visitors to sites in Glam's network, many of them female. But investors likely figured out that Glam doesn't own most of the sites those people visited.