[excon]

Hello:

When JP Morgan bought Bear a week ago at $2 a share, the Treasury Secretary was right there to point out that it WASN'T a bailout of the shareholders.

But, the shareholders sniveled... and the government caved. The ante was raised by a factor of 5 to $10. Now, the shareholders can buy cigars...

By the way, Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, can't say this ISN'T a bailout, and he hasn't...

Under Bush, the rich get richer. The people who STARTED the subprime meltdown and are deeply involved in it get rescued, while your ordinary people are losing their homes...

Oh, yeah. They're going to get a $600 check from the government... Bwa ha ha ha ha.

excon

[twinkiedooter]

Since the 1920's when shoe shine boys were giving stock tips the market has been manipulated by the rich. The stock market crash of 1929 was preplanned and premeditated. Now the rich are getting even richer off the backs of the poor. This will continue until the end of time with no let up.

The Bear Sterns "bailout" was nothing more than a scam that made a lot of rich people even richer. It reminds me of the story of Nathan Rothschild waiting at the London stock market after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo buying up everything for pennies on the dollar when everyone was lead to believe Napoleon won. Gee, how history repeats itself over and over again is amazing.

Oh yeah, I got my notice about the $600 check last week I will receive. That's nice. I'll be sure to squander it on my next Rolls Royce payment or Cartier jewelry purchase for my new tiara.

What are you planning on squandering your huge $600 check on excon?

[ScottGem]

The stock market crash of 1929 was preplanned and premeditated. Now the rich are getting even richer off the backs of the poor. This will continue until the end of time with no let up.

Can you provide any evidence of that?

The Bear Sterns "bailout" was nothing more than a scam that made a lot of rich people even richer.

Bear Sterns stock was selling for over $150 just a few months ago. So explain to me how buying it for $10 per share is making anyone rich? Are you aware that MOST stockholders are institutional investors like pension funds. This means the real losers when a company like Bear sterns folds are the people with pensions.

The financial markets are very complex nowadays. There are so many interlocking relationships, that any company going under affects rich and poor alike.

[tomder55]

Bear Stearns got screwed by the government .There was no need for a bailout (and yes it was a botched attempt at a bail out)

This is how Larry Kudlow explained it.

Since the elimination of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 -- a move that broke down the wall separating commercial and investment banks that had existed since the 1930s -- the Federal Reserve never changed its discount lending policies. In other words, until Sunday night, when Bear Stearns was already destined for the dustbin, the Fed was able to make loans to commercial banks like JPMorgan Chase, but not directly to brokers like Bear Stearns.
Throughout the credit crisis, which dates back to last summer, the Fed's discount lending to banks was supposed to trickle down to brokers. But it never really did. Big banks either horded their cash or spent it for their own various purposes. As one Bear Stearns official noted to me, this is the first credit and lending crisis since the end of Glass-Steagall. And the consequences for Bear Stearns were catastrophic. While the Fed announced a $200 billion auction lending facility for both banks and brokers last Tuesday, that facility won't be activated for a couple more weeks. So no help there.
But if the Fed had changed its discount polices to reflect the post-Glass-Steagall era, Bear Stearns could have accessed short-term Fed loans, even for a few days. That could have made all the difference in the world.

The fact that JP Morgan has upped the price of it's offer means that Bear Sterns was in better shape than everyone thought.
If what happened to Bear Sterns is a bail out then count me out . I'd rather swim with the sharks on my own.

Credit crisis happens from time to time and the worse thing that the gvt. Can do is to over react and interfere too much . It's an election year so expect the panderers of both parties to be very generous spending our money for various reasons.

And yes ,Evita and Obama are sure to take advantage of this and usie it as a justification to bail out everyone who happens to have a bad mortgage using the same class distinction rhetoric in this posting .

Bernanke and Paulson have been major disappointments . (so is that other idiot from Goldman Sachs NJ Governor Jon Corizine ) They have not acted nearly aggressively enough to prop up the dollar .Even Clintonista Paul Rubins realized the dollar had to at least remain stable and would purchase dollars from time to time to strengthen it.