Midday Open Thread

• Former Goldman Sachs CEO (and current US Treasury Secretary) Henry Paulson, said that he expects to "nationalize" Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley before the weekend is over. (Correction: Hugh Hendry, Partner and CIO at Eclectica said that Paulson may have to make the move this weekend)
• Citing tax irregularities, the Venezuelan government has ordered all McDonald's restaurants in Venezuela to close for 48 hours.
• YouTube has a cool new tool to help trollish commenters realize how ridiculous they sound:

  Once you've written your comment, you can hear it read back to you - giving you a chance to realise you're about to post something really dumb.

  Can they make it available for email too?

• While Wall Street continues a scary, wild ride and taxpayers are expected to pick-up an ever-growing tab, Wachovia executives are going to be living it up on the high seas next week:

  As ailing Wachovia Corp. waits to see whether it will be acquired by Wells Fargo & Co. or Citigroup Inc. -- possibly with taxpayers paying the tab for hundreds of billions of dollars in bad loans -- some of the company's top brokers are preparing to depart Saturday for an all-expenses-paid cruise of the Greek Isles.

  The weeklong trip for up to 75 employees of brokerage A.G. Edwards, which Wachovia acquired last year for nearly $7 billion, will also include spouses and significant others, said Teresa Dougherty, a Wachovia spokeswoman.

  "This is one way that we recognize our top financial advisors," she said.

  You're doing a heck of a job, Wachovia!

• Whoops....somebody is getting fired:

  N.Y. county sends out absentee ballots listing Barack 'Osama'

  ''This was a typo,'' Rensselaer County (N.Y.) Republican Commissioner Larry Bugbee tells the Albany Times Union in one of the biggest understatements of the campaign.