Bear Stearns Closes in on Deal To Sell Itself to J.P. Morgan  —  Bear Stearns Cos. was closing in on a deal Sunday afternoon to sell itself to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., as worries deepened that the financial crisis of confidence could spread if Bear failed to find a buyer by Monday morning.

Sunday Financial Meltdown Blogging  —  Every now and again, and then increasingly as things start looking worse, I get a comment like “how can you write about [thing that's not earth-shatteringly important] when the economy is [something terrible happening in the economy].”

Fed Acts to Rescue Financial Markets  —  WASHINGTON — Hoping to avoid a systemic meltdown in financial markets, the Federal Reserve on Sunday approved a $30 billion credit line to engineer the takeover of Bear Stearns and announced an open-ended lending program for the biggest investment firms on Wall Street.

The B Word  —  O.K., here it comes: The unthinkable is about to become the inevitable.  —  Last week, Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary, and John Lipsky, a top official at the International Monetary Fund, both suggested that public funds might be needed to rescue the U.S. financial system.

U.S. Fed Cuts Discount Rate, Says Dealers May Borrow  —  The Federal Reserve, in an emergency weekend decision, cut the rate on direct loans to commercial banks and opened up borrowing at the rate to primary dealers in government securities.  —  In an announcement before the start of trading …

Sold!  —  So JP Morgan has agreed to buy Bear Stearns at $2 a share.  As others have already pointed out, this is, from the point of view of the shareholders, just barely better than bankruptcy.  Talk of a bailout of the bank is silly—this wasn't a bailout; it was an orderly winding-up of business.

Oprah, Obama, And Wright  —  It has been reported that Oprah Winfrey, who endorsed Obama, is the other famous member of Wright's now controversial church.  However, she seems to have moved away from that church quite some time ago - this is from 2002: … I wonder what Oprah would say about the direction Wright's ministry took.

Obama answers questions about Rezko, pastor  —  No campaign stops were scheduled Sunday for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.  He was in the Chicago area Saturday night for a fundraiser.  —  The Illinois senator was in an Indianapolis suburb also this weekend, where he …