The most unhappy man on Wall Street today might very be John Mack, the CEO of Morgan Stanley, who watched the banking giant's stock price dip below $10 today. Morgan Stanley is now frantically reassuring investors that a deal with Mitsubishi UFJ to inject $9 billion into the beleaguered bank is still going to go ahead, notwithstanding the grim fact that Morgan Stanley's stock has slid 70 percent since Mitsubishi cemented the deal with Mack on September 22nd.

What a metaphor for the day (week, month) on Wall Street: As the graphic in the corner of the screen displayed the plunge of the Dow Jones on Fox News, it was reporting on a hot-air balloon that came crashing to earth in New Mexico earlier today. The video is to your left.

The Dow fell another 678 points today or 7.3 percent, which means the Dow is now down 39 percent from a year ago. Cue the sad traders! [WSJ, NYT]

Lawyers at the firm Weil Gotshal will make as much as $950 an hour to work on the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the largest in U.S. history. The total bill for lawyers from three dozen different firms, hundreds of accountants, and countless financial advisers? Possibly as high as $1 billion. [Bloomberg via DB]

Okay, so we don't really know that the worst is over. But judging by Hank Paulson's face, the economy may now be ready to rebound. The Treasury Secretary looked a bit less stressed at his press conference yesterday: Color seems to have returned to his face, and he may have even put on a pound or two since those especially scary days of a couple of weeks ago. Click here for a larger image so you can compare for yourself! [Previously]

Shares of Ford Motor Company—down nearly 9% today—are now back to their level in April 1983.

Here's another sign the economy is in trouble: the National Debt Clock in Midtown has run out of digits. The United States now officially owes more than 10 trillion dollars and now the clock's owner, the Durst Organization, has now had to make room for a 14th digit. John Del Signore has another idea: "While they're at it, they may as well make room for a 15th and 16th digit, and change the currency to yuan." [Gothamist]

It was former AIG chief Hank Greenberg's turn to testify before the House today, and as expected he blamed everyone but himself for the insurance giant's historic collapse. ("How did this happen? I was not there, so I cannot answer that question with precision.") Unfortunately, Greenberg delivered his remarks in writing because of an illness. Or maybe he was just scared of getting manhandled by a bunch of crazy old ladies from Code Pink?

Another day of misery on Wall Street: The Dow fell more than 360 points, dropping below the 10,000 mark for the first time since October of 2004. "The notion that there will be no quick fix for the problems besetting Wall Street—and the global economy—took firmer hold among market participants of all stripes." It could have been worse. At one point this afternoon, the Dow was down more than 800 points. [WSJ, NYT, CNN]

Citigroup's lawsuit against Wachovia and Wells Fargo is now public: Citi is asking for a whopping $60 billion (including $20 billion in compensatory damages and $40 billion in punitive damages) for breach of contract and tortious interference. Of course, the suit may be moot if the Fed brokers a deal between the three banks, as it has been suggesting. But if you're bored today and you're not interested in looking through Sarah Palin's tax returns (or you're interested to see what you get when you hire 80 lawyers to work round the clock for an entire weekend), the lawsuit is after the jump.

Lehman CEO Dick Fuld spoke before the House a few minutes ago and answered questions about the demise of his firm as well as assumed reponsibility for making mistakes that resulted in Lehman's bankruptcy. ("With the benefit of hindsight, I can now say that I and many others were wrong," said Fuld.) He also faced tough questions about his compensation package at the hands of Rep. Henry Waxman. A brief clip of the Waxman-Fuld showdown is above.

Jim Cramer turned up on the Today show this morning and dropped his usual TV persona—that of a raving maniac—to weigh in the market and offer up a little advice. So what does Jim suggest you do now that the economy is in a tailspin? "Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now, this week," he tells Ann Curry. Of course given his track record, you may want to consider doing precisely the opposite and pouring all of money in the market this afternoon. [MSNBC via Dealbreaker]

Most private equity titans are sitting in their stately offices high above the city nervously eyeing the declining stock prices on their Bloomberg flat-panels on their desks. Not Steve Schwarzman, the billionaire co-founder of the Blackstone Group. Steve simply decided to skip the mess altogether and jet off to his house in St. Tropez. He isn't sitting in his beachside mansion fretting about the millions he's losing on an hourly basis either. Over the weekend he and his wife Christine were spotted at Club 55, where the couple were apparently "trying to ignore the dire economic news." Here's hoping generous helpings of tuna carpaccio and Beluga caviar helped ease the pain.

♦ 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]

Way, way back in February of 2006, Senator John McCain invited a shiny new Senator from Illinois to a meeting to discuss campaign finance reform. A day after the meeting, the junior Senator, a polite young man named Barack Obama, wrote to McCain, "I know you have expressed an interest in creating a task force to further study and discuss these matters, but I and others in the Democratic Caucus believe the more effective and timely course is to allow the committees of jurisdiction to roll up their sleeves and get to work on writing ethics and lobbying reform legislation that a majority of the Senate can support. Committee consideration of these matters through the normal course will ensure that these issues are discussed in a public forum and that those within Congress, as well as those on the outside, can express their views, ensuring a thorough review of this matter." McCain's brain somehow translated that to mean, "Go fuck yourself, ass." Because this is what he wrote back:

Something else to add to the myriad reasons why the financial industry has collapsed in on itself: According to new research published in Science magazine, when faced with a situation that you have little control over—say, picking the right stock—otherwise rational people become superstitious and trick themselves into "seeing and making connections that do not exist." The study's co-author Jennifer Whitson observes that given the current precarious state of the market, traders "may grasp at any type of pattern that will make them feel better." So if, on your way home tonight, you see a guy in pinstripes and suspenders avoiding the cracks in the sidewalk and touching every second lamppost, you'll know why.

Oops! Citigroup's marketing department had already started running ads announcing the purchase of Wachovia when it found out this morning that the bank was backing out of the deal and selling itself to Wells Fargo instead. [AdAge]

Remember how Citigroup was supposed to buy Wachovia earlier this week for pennies and then it was announced this morning that Wachovia had actually changed its mind and decided to sell itself to Wells Fargo? Yea, well, now Citigroup is majorly pissed and is threatening Wachovia with a lawsuit. [Dealbook]

Fox Business Network ran ads in the Times and Wall Street Journal this week mocking rival CNBC for showing informercials during a heated weekend in the middle of the Wall Street meltdown. Fox concluded: "We own this story." Not quite. Financial panic did grow the year-old cable network's tiny audience to the point where it could be rated by Nielsen for the first time. But the results won't add any swagger to the step of Fox News chief Roger Ailes: Fox Business peaked at about 81,000 average viewers. During the same period, when Congress voted on the banking bailout Monday, CNBC averaged nearly 900,000 viewers, the Times reported this morning. It appears Fox will need to sweat it through many more weekend shifts to catch up — and pray for a bit more panic, for good measure.

♦ Citigroup isn't getting Wachovia after all: Just four days after the banks agreed to a deal, Wachovia has changed course and will now sell the company to Wells Fargo for $15.4 billion. [WSJ, NYT]
♦ The $700 billion bailout bill will reach the House for a vote today. This should be interesting. [NYT]
♦ JPMorgan Chase, which purchased a failed Washington Mutual last week, is already cleaning out the executive suite. [Bloomberg]