Another Wild Week Begins

BANKING CRISIS

Last major investment banks change status

The Federal Reserve said Sunday it had granted a request by the country's last two major investment banks -- Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley -- to change their status to bank holding companies. The change in status will allow them to create commercial banks that will be able to take deposits, bolstering the resources of both institutions.

The change continued the biggest restructuring on Wall Street since the Great Depression.

Paulson: We can’t wait for regulatory reform

The federal government stepped in with an emergency bailout of collapsing financial institutions on Wall Street last week because it could not wait for regulatory agencies to sort through the “crisis situation,” Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Sunday.

“Financial institutions [were] clogged with illiquid loans,” Paulson said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” effectively freezing credit markets and choking off money to keep Wall Street humming. “This is an urgent matter, and we need to move quickly,” Paulson said.

A $1.8 Trillion Bailout: Where the Money’s Going

Here’s a great list of how Washington is planning to spend your money trying to save Wall Street.

Three Times is Enemy Action

"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action."
-- Auric Goldfinger

This blogger starts back in the early '80s with the deregulation of the Savings and Loan industry, and walks us all the way to today's crisis. Familiar characters like John McCain, Charles Keating, and Phil Gramm pop up along the way.

ENERGY

South Copes With Severe Gas Shortages

Drivers throughout the South have faced gasoline shortages, closed stations, high prices and long lines at the pump for the last several days. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike slowed production at oil refineries on the Gulf Coast and knocked out power along many pipelines to the South.

Saudis trim oil supply

DUBAI – Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia has trimmed oil supplies to international majors and U.S. refiners since the start of September, industry sources said on Monday.

COMMODITIES

Commodities Bottom as Speculators Vanish After Slump

The worst may be over for commodities after the steepest rout since at least 1956 drove out speculators and the U.S. government unveiled a plan to end the worst credit-market seizure since the Great Depression.

Gold Rises, Extending Gains, on Demand for a Haven Asset; Silver Advances Gold rose above $900 an ounce, extending a rally after its biggest weekly gain in almost nine years, as investors shifted assets into precious metals as a haven from market turmoil. Silver gained more than 7 percent.

XX Sean’s note – I really hope this next guy is joking. Still, it’s good financial humor.

Check out my new gold and energy blog at MoneyAndMarkets.com