Wall Street Weekend Meltdown

Things on Wall Street are looking much grimmer than most would have imagined, even yesterday.  I guess the economy may not be "fundamentally sound," after all.

NY Times:

Coming just a week after the government took control of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the magnitude of the industry’s reshaping is staggering: two of the most powerful firms on Wall Street, Merrill Lynch and Lehman, will disappear...

Even as Lehman and Merrill played out, the insurance company, the American International Group, was planning a major reorganization...

A.I.G. became one of the focuses at an emergency gathering of Wall Street executives over the weekend, and was trying to arrange a capital infusion in the face of possible credit downgrades.

It was unclear whether A.I.G. would succeed in its capital search, but a person briefed on the discussions said it was seeking more than $40 billion even as it tried to sell assets to shore up its financial footing.