Bank meltdown wallops campaigns  —  America's banking instability could upend the final 50 days of the presidential campaign, with both candidates forced to confront a calamity that has gotten only glancing attention during the first 20 months of the race for the White House.

Crisis on Wall Street as Lehman Totters, Merrill Is Sold, AIG Seeks to Raise Cash  —  Fed Will Expand Its Lending Arsenal in a Bid to Calm Markets;  —  Moves Cap a Momentous Weekend for American Finance  —  NEW YORK — The American financial system was shaken to its core on Sunday.

Wall Street's Perfect Storm  —  Investors deal with a Lehman bankruptcy, the sale of Merrill Lynch to BofA, and a possible AIG restructuring  —  Mondays better not get any more manic than this.  —  Wall Street expected to spend today trying to contain the damage from a bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers …

Donald Luskin Reclaims His Title  —  Even Donald Luskin, aka The Stupidest Man Alive (and inspiration for one of my rare attempts at parody), must be regretting publishing an op-ed called “Quit Doling Out That Bad-Economy Line” today: … He then presents a bunch of data — last quarter, he tells us, real GDP was up 3.3%.

US in ‘once-in-a-century’ financial crisis : Greenspan … The United States is mired in a “once-in-a century” financial crisis which is now more than likely to spark a recession, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan said Sunday.  —  The talismanic ex-central banker said that the crisis …