Barclays has a sweet deal in hand - all it takes is a bankruptcy judge to give final approval. Hearing set for Friday.

Editor’s note: Start reading the linked article at paragraph three - the bit at the beginning about Chelsea Clinton being at today’s hearing not only doesn’t add anything to the real story, but it makes the whole process sound like some kind of circus side show.

No mention of purchase price on the $639 billion of assets (or portion thereof), probably because they need court approval first.

UPDATE: Forbes says the price is around $1.75 billion, and includes the investment banking and capital markets operations, as well as the Lehman headquarters property. In addition (I assume) Barclays will take on trading assets valued at $72 billion, and related liabilities of $68 million.

Gloom and doom compliments of Barclays Capital, with fingers pointing at Ben Bernanke. The tsunami is not here yet, but some are certainly testing the early warning system.

Speaking of gloom and doom, here’s a ten best websites list under the same moniker. A hat tip goes to Barry Ritholtz, who couldn’t decide whether to be miffed by his blog’s inclusion, or to rejoice. Personally, I think the collective intellect of the authors is off the charts, and their penchant for telling it like it is firmly grounded.  In other words, worthy of attention.

For those who think they are too smart to get nabbed by a phishing attempt, here is a little test you can take to see how skeptical you really are: MailFrontier Phishing IQ Test.

While the test is designed for UK email users (the bank examples include Barclays and the like), in our global economy, this is clearly applicable to everyone.