Dealbook: Putting a Value on a C.E.O.. For better or worse, you, fellow taxpayer, are an investor in Citigroup and other banks. You have a vested interest in Citigroup’s success. If this giant falls, we all lose.

Frequent Flier: Eating Kosher, Even in Guatemala. Some business travelers worry about the ability to follow religious dietary laws.

Small Players Vie for ‘Green Car’ Loans. Automakers are trying to convince Congress to provide aid, but there is another $25 billion auto industry government loan program, for the development of fuel-efficient cars.

Bill Drake, 71, Dies; Created a Winning Radio Style. Mr. Drake transformed radio programming with a syndicated format that delivered more music, fewer commercials and high-energy “Boss Jocks.”

Democrats in House Plan a Package of Up to $500 Billion to Help States. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hoped to deliver an economic recovery bill to President-elect Barack Obama when he takes office.

Some Federal Workers Lose Bargaining Rights. President Bush issued an executive order that denies bargaining rights to about 8,600 employees who work in national security.

Major Poultry Producer Files for Bankruptcy Protection. The chicken producer said the company would keep operating as it tried to resolve operational and liquidity problems.

Breakingviews.com.: Yahoo and MSN Makes Sense. Yahoo should put its money where its mouth is and offer to buy Microsoft’s MSN unit with a public bear hug.

Ryanair Makes New Bid for Aer Lingus. Ryanair, Europe’s biggest low-cost airline, made a new offer to buy the 70 percent of its Irish rival Aer Lingus that it does not already own.

Redstone Sells Majority Stake in Video Game Publisher. Sumner M. Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Viacom and CBS, said that he had sold his stake in Midway Games as his family’s holding company looks to get out from under $1.6 billion in debt.

Toyota Trims Management Pay. Toyota Motor said it would cut management bonuses by 10 percent as the global economic slowdown deepens.

J.&J. to Buy Manufacturer of Cosmetic Surgery Gear. Johnson & Johnson said it would buy Mentor, a maker of cosmetic products and breast implants, for $1.07 billion.

Building and Factory Data Reflect Economic Turmoil. In October, construction spending declined 1.2 percent, much more than analysts had expected, and a measure of manufacturing activity fell to a 26-year low.

Deutsche Rejects a Rescue, Even as Its Shares Tumble. Deutsche Bank fancies itself an exception to the view that giant banks need rescuing. But the markets will have the final word, and so far they are not buying the story.

Some Nations That Spurned the Euro Reconsider. European governments that have been forced to defend their currency now see a value in a common currency.

Cheer Fades as Stocks Plunge 9%. The announcement that the recession began in December 2007 came on a day when the Dow dropped more than 7 percent.

On the Road: Attention, Frazzled Fliers: Air Serenity Is Boarding. Airport experiences can become learning experiences on how to travel with a degree of serenity and grace.

Facebook Aims to Extend Its Reach Across the Web. With Facebook Connect, users can log onto a variety of sites and see their friends’ activities there.

Prosecutors Pass on Chance to Revive Tax Shelter Case. Federal prosecutors are passing on their last chance to reinvigorate a criminal tax-shelter proceeding, once billed as the largest in history, after a string of setbacks.

Retailers Get a Brief Lift on Black Friday as Shoppers Look for Blockbuster Sales. New figures confirmed that consumers who had been sitting on their wallets pulled them out for Black Friday, giving the nation’s retailers a much-needed sales spike.

Itineraries: The Dislocated Americans. When an overseas posting fails, the problem is often not the worker, but the spouse and children.

Fund Investors Sue Countrywide Over Loan Modifications. A hedge fund sued the Countrywide Financial Corporation, demanding that it compensate holders of some securities backed by mortgages if the terms were changed.

Boeing Engineers Approve Work Contract. Boeing’s second-largest union voted to approve the company’s four-year contract offer, avoiding a second damaging strike at the plane maker’s Seattle-area plants.

Advertising: Hot Food, and Air, at Bus Stops. Heated air will warm 10 Chicago bus shelters, courtesy of the Stove Top brand of stuffing. Such marketing is meant to entice consumers to experience products tangibly.

U.S. Is Said to Expand Tax Inquiry. The Justice Department has expanded its investigation into foreign banks that sell offshore banking services to include Credit Suisse and HSBC, according to people briefed on the matter.

Losses Triple in Quarter for Homebuilder. Revenue plunged for the struggling homebuilder Beazer Homes USA and its income tax provision ballooned.

In Deal With Hitachi, Intel Will Expand Its Flash Memory Business. Intel will announce a deal to become the sole supplier of flash memory for a coming Hitachi line of computer drives.

Bailout Monitor Sees Lack of a Coherent Plan. The head of a new Congressional panel set up to monitor the federal bailout says the government still does not seem to have a coherent strategy for easing the crisis.

Officials Vow to Act Amid Signs of Long Recession. With word that the U.S. officially sank into a recession last December, the Fed chairman and the Treasury secretary said they would use all the tools at their disposal.

Fed Extends Some Credit Programs. An emergency lending facility and one that makes loans to money market mutual funds are covered by the decision.

Write-Downs Hurt Sears and Staples in Quarter. Sears reported a wider-than-expected loss of $146 million, citing charges and weak results. Staples profit dropped 43 percent on hefty write-downs and the acquisition of Corporate Express.

Delta Plans More Capacity Cuts as Travel Slows. The reductions would come in both domestic and overseas flights as global recession erodes travel budgets.

British Airways in Merger Talks With Qantas. The addition of Qantas would add a significant Asia-Pacific element to a joint business agreement including British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia.

Square Feet: A Waterfront Revival in Columbus, Ohio. A former industrial wasteland becomes a neighborhood of housing, retailers and entertainment.

Icahn Sues Real Estate Company Over Debt. The onetime corporate raider is taking a fellow billionaire to court over a leveraged buyout gone bad.

Square Feet: Manhattan Awash in Open Office Space. Changes roiling the financial industry have contributed to a doubling of the listings of large office blocks.

Houghton Mifflin Publisher Resigns. Becky Saletan, publisher of the adult trade division, will leave next week in a sign of further unraveling at the publisher.

DealBook: G.E. Damps Down Earnings Expectations. General Electric said that it expects fourth-quarter profit to be at the low end of its previous guidance and warned that restructuring and other charges were likely to top $1 billion after taxes.

European Regulators Again Revise Bank Subsidy Rules. The European Commission is concerned that financial infusions might be improper subsidies.

Japan Tries to Ease a Crisis in Corporate Credit With Emergency Lending. The Bank of Japan announced emergency measures to ease an acute squeeze in corporate funding that threatens to push Asia’s largest economy deeper into recession.

Hawaii Endorses Plan for Electric Cars. The plan, the brainchild of the former Silicon Valley software executive Shai Agassi, is an attempt to overcome the major hurdles to electric cars.

Yahoo’s Stock Jumps on Report of Buyout Interest. Investors bid up shares after reports that Jonathan Miller, AOL’s former chief executive, is attempting a private buyout of Yahoo.

Wall St. Partially Recovers From Sell-Off. Wall Street mounted a modest recovery on Tuesday, gaining back nearly half of the enormous collapse that had seemed to bode badly for this week.

UnitedHealth to Insure the Right to Insurance. The company will sell the right to buy an individual health policy in the future even if you become sick.

Cleveland Clinic Discloses Doctors’ Industry Ties. In the first such step by a major medical center, the clinic says it has begun publicly disclosing the business relationships its staff has with drug makers.

November Was Another Dismal Month for Auto Sales. In the worst month yet in a horrible year, U.S. sales fell 41 percent at General Motors and 33.9 percent at Toyota. Honda’s sales declined 31.6 percent, and Ford’s fell 30.6 percent.

G.M. Asks for $18 Billion as It Tries to Avoid Collapse. General Motors said it needed $12 billion in loans and a $6 billion line of credit and that it will cut jobs, factories, brands and executive pay.