After claiming it should still be allowed to purchase--with the help of the government-- Wachovia for $2 billion, Citigroup is now allowing Wells Fargo buy Wachovia for $15 billion. Wachovia issued a statement saying, "We're pleased Citigroup has abandoned its efforts to interfere with Wachovia's planned merger with Wells Fargo. We look forward to completing our merger with Wells Fargo, which we have always believed is in the best interest of shareholders, employees, creditors and......

As speculated earlier this morning, U.K-based Barclays has reached an agreement to acquire a large chunk of Lehman Brothers' U.S. operations, which, according to the Financial Times, "perform securities underwriting tasks, provide merger advice to lucrative clients, and conduct trading." Though the cost of the deal is unclear, it's expected to quickly boost Barclays' U.S. presence by enabling the bank to assemble a pre-existing American investment banking business. As for the tainted Lehman Brothers assets,......

The Brooklyn resident whose name caused him $2.1 million of trouble is still being held at Rikers, but a judge lowered his bail from $1 million to $10,000. Benjamin Lovell, a Keyspan Energy salesman with a bank account of $400, was dubious when a Commerce bank teller told him he had a $5 million account. But he withdrew $2.1 million after bank officials insisted the money was his. Of course, what really happened was Commerce......

A little follow-up to the story about the 80-year-old woman who was robbed of tens of thousands of dollars from her Lower East Side apartment. Earlier this month, Connie Nieves had let in two men posing as flower deliverymen (note to self: Delivery men rarely work in pairs when they only have one dozen roses), who then tied her up and ransacked her apartment of the cash. Nieves said, "How can I not open the......