Pathetic Bear Stearns Bailout: Who to Blame

Guy, this was a huge setup. The brokerages set this up and timed it into the market rally. JPM and BSC knew what they were going to do long ago. Yesterday, a single buyer bought 55K $30 puts in BSC. Who do you think that was? Bet they were connected to JPM.

I just love these smart overpaid MBA's

I completely agree. First Enron and now Bear Stearns and god knows who to follow.

Bush. Who else?

And too bad, with this ultimately being a tax payers liability, tax payers don't have a stake in the company.

Bush. Who else?

Meanwhile, the CEO will continue to get tax breaks from the government...what's wrong with this picture?

Hello Henry, I'm not familiar with your articles, but this one's a little slow on the draw. The time to start complaining and swearing about the management of short term debt was six months ago, or better yet several years ago. Have some foresight.

read your Bible...the end is near!

It's sad because I spent 15 years with that company

pathetic

This will not be the last time this happens. The credit markets are still unraveling and who knows which bank is next. It might be Thornburgh or even Citibank or UBS. It makes you wonder how much this is going to cost the government. One question is really scary! Will the multiple bailouts in total be too big for the government? Waht happens then?

I blame the employees of Bear Sterns. They should be forced to finance their own bailout through hefty fines.

Buy call options for a year out. No way they can let BSC go under. If BSC goes under their will be serious problems with the markets for years and they can not allow that to happen. Thats why the FED said that if BSC still fails JP would not be on the hook for the money lent to BSC. The FED is channeling money into BSC through JP.

Damn Larry R, that pull made so much money. I would like to know which company has lost the most valuation in this short 2008 Street Season.

The US Government is largely the cause of the SubPrime mess, don't forget: 1. It was government policy past 15 years to increase home ownership, by even GIFTING downpayments to low-income borrowers. Fed. Govt. gave grants to anti-poverty agencies who mainly gifted deposits to certain minority people, even to non-US Citizens (I knew an El Salvadorean woman gifted a deposit). 2. US Govt. further goosed up value of starter and lower cost homes by its FHA agency promoting banks to make loans to low income (subprime) borrowers. 3. The Fed. Govt. mostly refuses to use the FBI to help banks prosecute subprimes who've been dishonest in their loan applications, and now default. Instead it tells banks to take the losses, cause its politically unpopular to prosecute so many people in say California which Repubs. need for the Fall Elections. By setting up lower interest loans via FNM, FRE and FHA for bottom to medium end of the market and even gifting downpayments to low-income people, the US Govt. caused Housing to be higher priced than it should have been. Initial sellers into this bubble gained, and now the gov

This is just the tip of the iceberg ,Bernake is a fraud who is gonna be found out .They are happy to shaft the taxpayer just to keep the suit's happy .Anyone see that further rate drop's will send the Dollar into freefall ,Gold will rise further and oil will go to the moon .Look out people the s""t is about to hit the fan .

Yes, privatize the profits and socialize the losses. The FED backstops the rich and makes sure they keep their money at the expense of you , the taxpayer.... oh and you also get stuck with a slowing economy, weaker dollar, and higher oil and gas prices. Thanks FED... you have done your job well! [sarcasm off]

Why do we insist on saving these Banks, who did this to themselves? What ever happened to the free market and risk vs reward? The market needs to purge itself and we can't artifically try to shorten or even avoid the onerous portions of the natural business cycle. Send those who profited the most to real jails for long periods of time.

Couldn't say it better.