More bad news for investors, small and large, today.

With Lehman Brothers following Bear Stearns into failure, the investment banking world seems like a much riskier place to put your money than heretofore. And the risk turns out to be pretty well hidden from the people who trust them with their funds. Paul Krugman argues, here, that investment banking must provide more visibility into their affairs, in the form of government regulation.

In advance of Monday's opening, the Fed loosened it's standards on emergency loans to head off similar failures elsewhere in the banking world. (NYT here)

In the face of staggering losses, the world's largest brokerage firm Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America. (here)