The video above documents a bit of vigilante art outside a Washington Mutual branch in California. We've yet to see any branches in New York get painted over with a mural illustrating the plunging price of WaMu stock during the month of October, but here's hoping! [GoAbove via Urban Prankster]

It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for the belligerent old Viacom and CBS owner: Sumner Redstone is facing the sort of debt that would send most people into a nervous breakdown. First he has to weasel out of paying an $800 million Bank of America Securities loan before the end of December. But that's not the worst of it. He then most get unanimous consent from 55 separate institutions to refinance another $800 million loan. The Post thinks he might be toast:

♦ 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]

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance: How Wall Streeters are working through the classic grieving process as they cope with the meltdown. [Page Six Mag]

Think the meltdown on Wall Street will ruin bonus season for bankers in town? Not necessarily! Merrill Lynch has set aside $6.7 billion to pay annual bonuses. Goldman Sachs plans to dole out $6.85 billion in total, an average of $210,300 for each employee. And Morgan Stanley has $6.44 billion for bonuses, or $138,700 per person. And you were concerned the $700 billion bailout would be misspent. [Bloomberg]

Does it feel like you're losing money in the market with each passing day? Talk to Eddie Lampert. According to the Post, the hedge fund billionaire has been losing $30 million an hour for the past month as his investments in Sears/Kmart, AutoZone, and Citigroup have plunged. [NYP]

♦ Another bad day ahead? U.S. futures are down sharply after losses in Asia and Europe. [Marketwatch]
♦ The Fed starts making loans to American companies today. [WSJ]
♦ Turns out there were some pretty dark days at Goldman last month: Lloyd Blankfein called Citi chief Vikram Pandit to discuss a merger just after Lehman went bankrupt. [FT, WSJ]
♦ Citadel's Ken Griffin remains in the hot seat after rumors of steep losses led him to hold a rare conference call on Friday evening. [NYP, NYT]

It wasn't quite as bad as some feared this morning, but the stock market still took another beating today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 312 points, or 3.6 percent, to close at 8,378, its lowest level in more than five years. If you've made a conscious effort to avoid looking at your 401K the past few weeks, now is probably not the time to start. The Dow has now tumbled 26.6 percent since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in mid-September. [AP, Marketwatch]

After Moody's threatened to downgrade the New York Times Company's debt to junk status Thursday, Standard & Poors went ahead and actually made such a move, bringing to reality a development foretold fully two months ago by Bloomberg. The Times Company is only now considering reducing its outsized dividend to shareholders, including most prominently to the Sulzberger family that controls the company. Having failed one test, involving credit, the Sulzbergers now face another, involving their hold on arguably the most important journalism franchise in the country.

♦ This could get messy: Asian and European markets were mauled on Friday, pointing to another monumental beating for the U.S. market today. [MW]
♦ A recap of Alan Greenspan's humiliating day in front of members of a congressional panel yesterday. [NYT, NYP]
♦ One of the very few people who is having an exceptional year: John Paulson, whose three funds are up between 15 and 25 percent. [WSJ]

Sandy Weill may be preparing to get back in the game: The architect of Citigroup is now "in talks about launching a private-equity fund that would invest in beaten-down financial companies and assets." [WSJ]

♦ 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]

Stocks were pummeled once again today with the Dow shedding 500 points and the S&P falling to its lowest level since April 21, 2003. Normally at a time like this, we'd direct your attention to the blog Sad Guys on Trading Floors, or even the more recent Brokers With Hands on Their Faces. In the spirit of diversity, though, we thought we'd mix it up and introduce you to a brand new photo feature, which we're officially calling Sad Arab Traders Wearing Kaffiyehs and Holding Their Hands to Their Faces. More pics after the jump.

You won't find former AIG chief Martin Sullivan in a very good mood today: His former employer has agreed to Andrew Cuomo's demand that the company suspend $19 million in payouts that Sullivan was supposed to receive. The insurance giant also agreed to withhold more than $600 million in bonus payouts to senior execs. [NYT]

Former Morgan Stanley co-president Zoe Cruz is back. Or she might be! Demonstrating once again that timing is not her forte, she's now thinking about "possibly raising money to start a hedge fund." Or she might just take another job at big company because "she enjoyed being a high-level manager at a large prestigious firm." A large prestigious firm? Those don't exist anymore, silly! [TheStreet via Dealbreaker]

♦ 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]

CNBC reports that Merrill Lynch sent 500 people packing today, and a total of 10,000 people may ultimately lose their jobs after the firm merges with Bank of America. [Clusterstock]

Jim Cramer is apologizing once again. No, not for recommending Bear Stearns days before its collapse, or suggesting investors buy stock in Wachovia just days before it took a tumble, too. He's saying sorry to the 115,000 AIG employees he insulted late last week, comments that led AIG's CEO to fire off a nasty letter to Cramer yesterday. [BusinessSheet]

Will beleaguered bankers become a victimized group, ostracized and pushed to the fringes of society? Very possibly! As Time points out today, "people are angry and looking for someone to blame, and the banks and their employees are natural targets." Yesterday's Masters of the Universe, observes psychologist Dr. Peter Jenkin Morgan, now don't want to admit what their job is—or was—because they've "been placed in that second-hand car salesman category." Ouch!

Bill O'Reilly cares really, really deeply about the little people, especially the unfortunate folks who have lost their homes during the mortgage meltdown. That's why he says he now plans to track down the perpetrators of these outrageous crimes "one by one." Last night's target: Former Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal, who was evidently leaving his apartment building on Park Avenue when an O'Reilly operative ambushed him and trailed him a few blocks, all the while asking him questions about the $161 million he made last year and whether or not he felt bad for Merrill investors and employees. O'Neal kept his mouth shut the entire time, which didn't exactly make for thrilling television. Hopefully the lack of drama won't deter O'Reilly hooligans from camping outside Dick Fuld's house in Greenwich or bumrushing Jimmy Cayne at his weekly bridge game.