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Every big company faces obsolescence at some point. For its part, American Express isn’t going gently into that good night any time soon. Instead, the credit card processing giant is determined to remake itself into a nimble software and services company — one that both facilitates the kinds of digital transactions that are overtaking other […]

Last week, Blackstone Group cofounder Stephen Schwartzman's keynote speech became the talk of Wall Street. Here's that roast, in its entirety. And here's footage of the special celebration of Steve Jobs' life that took place at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., campus last week. MTV "embeds" in Zuccotti Park to film the "true life of an Occupier." Frank Rich on the "class war" now in progress. WikiLeaks is going broke, according to cofounder Julian Assange. George Soros's hedge fund just bought a 5.6% stake in the online health site WebMD. Netflix beat its third-quarter estimates, but its go-go subscriber growth has officially screeched to a halt. Recession? What recession? Third-quarter profits for the construction equipment maker Caterpiller are up a whopping 44% over the same period last year. Apax Partners sells Thomas the Tank Engine to Mattel for $680 million. Workday, the six-year-old, software as a service company focused on human resources, just raised $85 million at a stunning $2 billion valuation.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert say goodbye to Steve Jobs. While Ryan Tate writes on what everyone is too polite to say about him. Is there a "bamboo ceiling" for Asian Americans at U.S. companies? Why the Volcker Rule will hit Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley the hardest. For two execs who just got ousted from Bank of America, Sallie Krawcheck and Joe Price aren't making out too poorly. Groupon amends its S-1 filing. Again. Why education startups fail. C'est vrai. Mayor Bloomberg is not a fan of Occupy Wall Street. Olivia Harrison on that new Scorsese-directed George Harrison documentary.

A small network of angel investors, incubators and early-stage VC firms is developing in the Mideast. Tech geeks revitalize New York's Soho House. Michael Lewis on Occupy Wall Street protesters: "They’re right to be angry, but they have to figure out what they want if they’re going to have any effect." Capital One tries turning on the charm to get the ING deal done. Why top B-schools are opting out of ethics rankings. Erin Burnett just doesn't get it. Paul Graham on why startup hubs work. Meet the Goldman partner who engineered the Facebook deal. Meredith Whitney isn't backing down from her position on state and municipal finances.

Deets on Obama's new jobs plan. Daily Dow Jones Rorschach. How Morgan Stanley may have just gotten a leg up on the Facebook IPO. Here's the letter Yahoo's board sent out to employees, shortly after they canned Carol Bartz. A Yahoo employee today then asked the board to give Bartz’s severance package to charity, to much applause. Cold. Crikey. Guy Hands is still trying to win back control of the music company EMI. The most f*#%ed up thing people have ever been asked to do at work: Victims share their stories. The industrial manufacturer Dover is selling two companies to KPS Capital Partners. Rick Perry's economic team is so far economist free. Fortune on why the end of TechCrunch wouldn't be such a terrible thing for entrepreneurs. (Or, of course, TechCrunch competitors.) Lindsey Buckingham is back with a new solo album. New York magazine chats him up.

After much deliberation -- and a little call from the SEC --Groupon has yanked plans for a road show and it's reassessing the timing of its IPO. More confirmation that online data storage startup Dropbox is closing a major financing round at a stunning $4 billion valuation. VC Tim Chang ditches Norwest for Mayfield. If AOL doesn't leave TechCrunch alone, Mike Arrington  would like to buy it back from AOL. Seriously. Bernie Madoff is working with a faculty member at Harvard Business School on a case study about his, ahem, career. Telx is looking to line up $340 million in loans to finance its leveraged buyout by Abry Partners and Berkshire Partners. The cities with the worst drivers.

The Atlantic on why founders make the best leaders. The rise, and rise, of Accel's Jim Breyer. Michael Arrington is now employed by AOL Ventures. Maybe. Probably. (Zzzz.) One cofounder of the low-flying venture firm Harrison Metal is heading to Hollywood, baby. When it comes to the stock market, a bad August often leads to a rotten September. Ha! Warren Buffett's chief of staff has a killer business card. Scroll down to see it here. The Fed is suing 17 banks, including Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase, over their sale of crappy home-mortgage-backed securities. Speaking of Wall Street, the big bucks are shifting from Romney to Obama.

Michael Arrington is raising a $20 million venture fund, with TechCrunch parent AOL as its anchor investor. Conflict, schmonflict! OMG, OMG, OMG! Oprah is doing a live interview at Facebook next week! American Apparel, the poor little lamb, is not out of the woods yet. Hi, we're Goldman Sachs, and as you can see from our friendly new Website, we're most definitely not a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity! Heh, heh. J.Crew, TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners agree to pony up an extra $16 million to make investors lawsuits over the retailer's $3 billion buyout disappear. How to get around an old boss who's trying to undermine your job hunt. Steve Jobs's biological dad has never met him; he's hoping that will change soon. Can't get enough of Ricky Gervais? Us, too. Here's a preview of his newest project.

For a company that’s in registration to go public and thus forbidden from pumping up the company stock in advance of an IPO, Groupon is having an awfully hard time keeping quiet. Last week, of course, a memo from Groupon CEO Andrew Mason to employees about “insane accusations” being reported about the company’s financials was […]

Facebook is probably launching a music platform next month. Here's what it may mean for existing music providers. Scientific proof that boarding airplanes by zones is a stupid system. Nouriel Roubini: "We're going into a recession based on my numbers." Wall Street is being a lot tighter with its cash, and charities are feeling the squeeze. The fashion industry to Tumblr: Get your act together for chrissakes. As government sues to block AT&T’s deal with T-Mobile, Dealbook looks at some patterns to emerge from the Justice Department. Aging Americans will stunt workforce growth and weaken economic activity for two decades. (Happy Wednesday!) The truth behind Facebook and Yelp and their stance on daily deals. Where to grab a drink this upcoming holiday weekend: a survey of New York City's barscape.