Posted by Katharine Crnko

For Marketplace Morning Report, Monday, January 1, 2011

Mega-investment bank Goldman Sachs is investing half-a-billion dollars into Internet-giant Facebook, making Facebook’s value about $50 billion.

New Federal Reserve members have been vocal in their criticism of Ben Bernanke’s bond-buying technique. John Dimsdale explains how new Fed members could bring a premature end to quantitative easing.

On Friday we’ll get the first big employment report of the New Year from the Labor Department. It’ll tell us what the unemployment rate was in December.

Las Vegas is set to host one of the largest gadget tradeshows of the year — Consumer Electronics show. This year’s top trend? Beating how the Apple iPad.

The British government has launched a drive to stop obesity in Britain from reaching American proportions.

The markets for corporate bonds are sending positive signals about the U.S. economy.

Obama administration economic adviser Austan Goolsbee warned Congress not to play chicken with the nation’s debt ceiling, which is currently $14.3 trillion.

Here are the songs we played:

• Emma Blowgun’s Last Stand — BeulahBuy

• Firesuite — DovesBuy

• Everlasting Light — The Black KeysBuy

• Stillness — Blue Sky Black Death Buy

• Red and Purple — DodosBuy