While Hurricane Ike ravaged the Gulf Coast over the weekend, there was a major financial storm on Wall Street on Saturday and Sunday. Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest US investment bank, announced on Sunday that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Shortly thereafter Bank of America announced that it was gobbling up brokerage giant Merrill Lynch for a mere $45-50 billion in stock. If that weren't enough, insurance giant AIG is in serious financial condition and is requesting $70-75 billion in new loans to stay afloat. These latest developments are the next chapter in the subprime mortgage/credit crisis, and they took a heavy toll on the stock markets yesterday. I will sort it all out for you in the pages that follow....