* We’re from the Fed, but unfortunately don’t have the authority to lend Lehman any emergency funds. What’s that? It’s just gone Chapter 11? Ok, then now we can lend it $138 billion.
* Robert Chew: How I got screwed by Bernie Madoff.
* Morning Call: U.S. futures mixed ahead of Goldman and the Fed, FTSE rises on drugs, other European stocks also up at mid-day, Nikkei down and Hong Kong up.
* Owen thinks that Facebook’s new valuation is between $1.3 billion and $2.3 billion. This sounds like a major drop from the $15 billion pricetag Microsoft put on its investment last year, until you remember that Microsoft gave that figure as part of a larger strategic arrangement — rather than as a pure venture capital investment. In other words, it was a bogus valuation to begin with.
* Profitable until deemed illegal: Atwood on online auction site Swoopo.
* National Geographic: The real price of gold.
* The Economist says it’s sorry for those 2008 predictions.
* Fred Wilson: How to survive a horrible airline seat assignment.
* The fall of the mall is upon us.
* While daddy Madoff was stealing, son Mark was out fishing: