♦ The Big Three automakers are putting finishing touches on new business plans to take to Congress this week, part of a last-ditch effort to secure a federal bailout. [WSJ, Bloomberg, NYT]
♦ Shoppers spent $41 billion over the four-day weekend, up 7.2 percent from the year before. That was better than expected, but retail experts are still pessimistic about the holiday season outlook. [CNNMoney, WSJ]
♦ Hedge funder Paul Tudor Jones has suspended withdrawals as he splits his $10 billion flagship fund into two. [FT]
♦ The bailout has already cost more than World War II, in case you're keeping count at home. [Clusterstock]

Jerry Yang's least favorite investor bought nearly seven million more shares of YHOO. BoomTown reporter Kara Swisher did my homework for me again: Todd Bradley, head of H-P's $28 billion Personal Systems group, has been added to the list of potential Yahoo CEOs. Just to keep things complicated, the board my appoint an interim CEO to give off the appearance of someone actually doing something at Yahoo.(Photo by AP/Charles Rex Arbogast)

♦ Horror of horrors: The average Goldman partner may take home a bonus of $1 million or less this year. [FT]
♦ One of Goldman's flagship hedge funds, Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, has lost close to $1 billion since January. [FT]
♦ UBS posted a third-quarter profit, but it still laid off 700 U.S.-based employees last week. [CNNMoney, NYP]

♦ 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]

Billionaire Carl Icahn has said he's selling his 177-foot yacht for $37.5 million to trade up to an even bigger boat. Well, this might just be a the bargain he's looking for: Saddam Hussein's former palace at sea, the Basra Breeze, is now on sale for $31 million. That's not all that much money considering the 272-foot vessel is bulletproof, comes with its own operating room, is fitted with surface-to-air missiles, and has enough china to serve dinner to 200 guests. The bad news? "The décor is a monument to 1980s bad taste," and it will probably cost another $30 million to refurbish. [Times UK]

♦ Bill O'Reilly has signed a new four-year contract with Fox News worth $10-12 million a year. There is good news, though: His radio show may be coming to an end. [NYDN]
♦ More bad news for Harvey Weinstein: A handful of senior execs at The Weinstein Co. have announced their departures. [THR]
♦ How are monthly business magazines keeping up with the financial crisis? They're not, really. [NYO]
♦ The offices of the New York Times received an envelope this morning containing a "white granular substance." [Radar]

♦ Bad day ahead? Stocks fell sharply in Europe and Asia overnight and ugly corporate earnings have investors worried. [MW]
♦ Wachovia, which is being acquired by Wells Fargo, reported a third-quarter loss of $23.9 billion. [Bloomberg]
♦ Yahoo says it will lay off 10 percent of its work force. [NYT]
♦ Federal prosecutors looking into the collapse of Lehman have subpoenaed other firms to find out if their analysts were misled by Lehman execs. [WSJ]

The Post followed up over the weekend on our scoop last Friday that Carl Icahn is in the process of selling his 177-foot yacht for $37.5 million. Despite the fact he's taken a beating in recent months—his Icahn Enterprises is down 76 percent this year and he's lost a fortune with investments in Motorola and Yahoo!—Icahn's yacht broker claims the billionaire is selling the floating paradise to buy an even bigger yacht, which he plans to rent out to others to cover the operating costs. Who knew there are lots of people in the market these days for $250K-a-week yacht rentals? [NYP]

You probably won't find Carl Icahn reclining in a chaise lounge in the Caribbean this winter—at least not on the deck of his 177-foot yacht. In a grim reminder that even billionaires are feeling the pinch of the recession, this week Icahn put his boat up for sale for $37 million.

It's not often in life that you have to share a cordial dinner with someone who just a few months before publicly called for your job. But that's what Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang gets to do tonight. Back in June, corporate raider Carl Icahn said that if he were to be given control over Yahoo, he would "hire a talented and experienced CEO (attempting to replicate Google's success with Eric Schmidt) to replace Jerry Yang and return Jerry to his role as Chief Yahoo." Icahn never gained control of Yahoo, of course, but he did win three seats on an expanded board — one that will meet for the first time this week. The group will meet twice this week, sources told the Wall Street Journal. First for dinner tonight and then for a meeting tomorrow. Other than an update on the on-again-off-again merger negotians between Yahoo and Time Warner, sources won't say what the board will talk about tonight or tomorrow. We already know, however, how Yang's body language will look if things get hostile.

New York's third-richest resident, Carl Icahn, is weighing in on the events of the past few days on his blog. He's not in a very good mood, not surprisingly, but he's particularly peeved about the sweet payouts that CEOs of failed financial institutions are set to receive, despite the fact that shareholders will get royally screwed. Some of the folks who have benefited (or will benefit) from "egregious golden parachutes" and should not expect a Christmas card from Carl this year (or an invite to join him on his yacht): Bob Willumstad, the CEO of AIG; Stan O'Neal, the ex-CEO of Merrill Lynch; Chuck Prince, Citi's former chief; and Daniel Mudd, the outgoing CEO of Fannie Mae.

• It's no fun living near Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Neighbors in the West Village say the two are "spoiled brats" since they have bodyguards posted outside their apartment on West 13th Street who make neighbors get off the stoop whenever the twins are arriving home, and the twins keep SUVs idling in front of the building for hours at a time. [P6]

• Will today be Lehman's last day as an independent firm? Last-minute discussions continue with several possible rescuers, including Bank of America and possibly Barclays, and the Fed has said it has no plans to bail out the nation's fourth-largest investment bank. [WSJ, NYT, Bloomberg]
  

• Lehman CEO Dick Fuld's announcement yesterday about the firm's new strategic direction hasn't changed much, say analysts, and questions about Lehman's ability to weather the storm continue to loom. [NYT, WSJ, FT, NYP]

Carl Icahn has returned to blogging after a two-week absence. And he has a new punching bag, too, uber-lawyer Marty Lipton. Welcome back, Carl. Glad to see you're well-rested after your vacation at sea. [Icahn Report, Dealbook]

• Phil Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners has taken a 4.9 percent stake in Cablevision. [NYP]

Carl Icahn's proxy battle is officially over, with Icahn adding former Nextel CEO John Chapple and former Universal Studios chairman and CEO Frank Biondi to his minority position on Yahoo's board according to an announcement from the company. "We are pleased to add people of Frank’s and John’s caliber to our board," chairman Roy Bostock said in a prepared statement. Chin up, Roy — at least you still have your seat. [New York Times]

With former AOL CEO Jon Miller out of the running, thanks to Time Warner's last-minute meddling, sources with knowledge of the situation say they expect corporate raider Carl Icahn to name former entertainment executive Frank Biondi and former advertising executive Edward Meyer to Yahoo's board. [BoomTown]

• Carl Icahn isn't having such a hot year. Shares of Icahn Enterprises are down 50 percent this year "as investors have backed away from their initial enthusiasm for the activist investor." [NYP]

• Lehman Brothers chief Dick Fuld is in discussions with several private-equity and foreign investors about raising even more capital for the struggling bank. [NYP]