BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank

Subject: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 03:15 PM

http://depression2.tv/d2/node/42


Instead of leting the BS investment bank go bankrupt it was sold to Chase Morgan bank for $2 a share (down $140 from 2006.)

the FTC arranged the sale. - unprecendented.

Some guy bought one billion dollars of Bear Stearns common stock yesterday. He should have gone to Vegas and bet on the big wheel.


When enough investment banks that are leveragedwith lots of sub prime derivitives fail I do not see the goverment having enough money to pay all their guarantees
The inflated sub prime derivitives and fraudulent claims made by those investment houses actually add up to more money than there is in the world including real estate values.

For that scam to go that far needed a lot of help....hmmmm who could it be?

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 03:17 PM

Stop throwing borrowed money at Iraq and there would be more liquidity to work with.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 03:20 PM

The time is coming when the borrowed money will have to be repaid. Of course, that means tax cuts.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 03:22 PM

I vote we get it all back from Halliburton, right after someone shoots Dick Cheney in the face while hunting for Iraqis still welcoming him with open arms in Baghdad this week.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 03:24 PM

Stupider than the average bear, Boo Boo.

G

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 03:27 PM

Gigi, I assume that you've never been shot in the face or anywhere else or have seen someone who has been. If you had you wouldn't be so quick to wish it on Cheney or anyone else.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 03:27 PM

And how much money will be left over after bailing out all the crooks, to protect our FDIC protected bank deposits, hmmmm?

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 03:44 PM

answer
all the money in China ?

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 03:49 PM

If you were in Wall Street lately you would understand that hearing the news that "THE END IS NEAR" would actually be good news and begin a rally.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 03:59 PM

Well Rapaire, then I guess Dick Cheney shouldn't have shot his buddy in the face while engaging in their favorite blood sport, eh?

Subject: Lyr Add: SOMETIMES THAT BEAR BITES YOU (R Miles)
From: reggie miles
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 05:33 PM

I kind of felt as though this latest song of mine would fit with our times but not quite so perfectly.

Sometimes That Bear Bites You by Reggie Miles 2008

Sometimes you get to bite that bear,
Sometimes that bear bites you.
You can never be sure of weather.
It may be cloudy but it could turn blue.
And nobody knows which way the wind blows,
But it blows just the same and it's true,
That sometimes you get to bite that bear,
Sometimes that bear bites you.

You might be ridin' in the finest limo,
Or starrin' in a Hollywood picture or two.
You may be havin' a ball at your A-list parties
Sippin' champagne from a shoe,
But you know it won't last forever
Every up has its downside too
Yes sometimes you get to bite that bear,
And sometimes that bear bites you.

You may be an ace at card play,
Or have a knack for rollin' them dice.
And you may win at most every spin,
Of that roulette wheel of life.
But haven't you heard,
You can't win 'em all,
Is the only permanent rule?
Yes, sometimes you get to bite that bear,
And sometimes that bear bites you.

Sometimes you get to bite that bear,
Sometimes that bear bites you.
Ain't no sense in feelin' bad, mad or, sad
Disappointed, angry or blue.
Cuz in this go round there's just one game in town
One toss of the coin then you're through
Yes, sometimes you get to bite that bear,
And sometimes that bear bites you.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 09:04 PM

Nope, sure shouldn't have.

Should have been arrested and tried and his hunting privileges revoked and his gear forfeited at the very least. But then, he did it in Texas.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 09:11 PM

Which made the whole thing such great fodder for the late night boys.

BTW, my joking is only to cover my extreme discomfort w/the run on Bear Stearns, and the subsequent "rescue" by the Fed.

I have been nervous about the "chickens coming home to roost" and bringing on a mortgage and credit crisis since the late 90s.

I just never in a million years thought it would be as bad as it is panning out to be.

And I don't know that most people in this forum are even aware of how scary this really is.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 09:16 PM

Oh yes I am. And I don't see how cutting your income when you owe money is going to solve your debt problem -- which is exactly what the Bush admin and the Congress has been doing by cutting taxes so they can borrow to make up the deficit. I've been concerned about this since the Reagan times and now, cluck cluck, the chickens are coming home.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 09:32 PM

But we get a STIMULUS payment!!! Geee, folks....(tongue very much in cheek here)

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 09:35 PM

Yeah. Borrow more money to stimulate the economy by moving more jobs to China or India so we can stimulate the economy with the borrowed money.

Ah....

My "stimulus money" is going right into the stimulus savings account.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 09:37 PM

Yeah, throw a life saver to the fat cats and let the folks who got sucked into some crazy refi schemes twist ibn the wind...

More of my tax dollars going upwards in the hopes that they will trickle back down to me...

What we need is trickle up economics 'cause once my tax dollars go the the rich they never quite find their way home...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 09:50 PM

This ain't the first or the last of the bailouts.

From Pam Martens at Counterpunch today (some here ought to read her series on Obama & why Wall Street is flooding his campaign w/money):

oo Big to Bail
The Fed's Wall Street Dilemma

By PAM MARTENS

Americans learned two new truths last week from the Bush Administration's version of Life's Little Instruction Book: if you're a Wall Street miscreant you're thrown a lifeline; if you're a Wall Street crime fighter you're thrown a land mine.

In the first effort, the Feds effectively handed a Federal Reserve ATM card to JPMorgan to funnel your tax dollars to the teetering Bear Stearns brokerage firm to address counterparty risks that have been building for at least 4 years as the Feds snoozed. Counterparty risk is the trillions of dollars of insurance contracts (credit default swaps and other derivatives) taken out by Wall Street firms on each others (counterparty) bonds, bundled mortgage and commercial debt (collateralized debt obligations). The firms have used unregulated over-the-counter contracts to perform this risk transfer alchemy and funded their own company, Markit Group Ltd., to take the place of a regulated exchange for price discovery.

In the second effort, the Feds tapped the Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Attorney's office in New York, FBI, five federal judges and a busy federal court to root out that Code Red threat to our national security: consensual sex. The sex involved a prostitution ring and Democratic New York State Governor, Eliot Spitzer, who was savaged and forced to step down by an avenging media mob abundantly fed with well placed leaks from a suspiciously homogenous group called "anonymous law enforcement officials." Governor Spitzer, in his former role as New York State Attorney General, had taken the lead in rooting out Wall Street crimes against small investors because the Federal Reserve was preoccupied with lobbying to remove regulations on Wall Street's crime factory.

As usual, the Feds handed the bill to the governed with no thought to the will of the governed.

While mainstream media called the Bear Stearns bailout the first brokerage bailout since the Great Depression, in truth it was the second in seven months.

The first brokerage bailout came without all the media fanfare because it arrived not on the wings of a public announcement but in five pages of indecipherable Fed jargon addressed to the General Counsel of Citigroup.

Here is the effective message sent by the Federal Reserve to Citigroup in its letter of August 20, 2007: now that we have allowed you to become both too big to fail and too big to bail by repealing the depression era investor-protection law known as the Glass-Steagall Act at your mere beckoning, we have to bend more rules to keep you afloat. So, for example, the rule that says the Federal Reserve is not allowed to lend to brokerages, just banks, from its discount window can be tweaked for you by lending up to $25 billion to you and then we'll let you lend it to your brokerage arm. The Federal Reserve Act rule that says a bank can't loan more than 10% of its capital stock and surplus to its brokerage affiliate, we'll let you go as high as about 30% and say it's in the public interest.

By giving Citigroup an exemption from Rule 23A of the Federal Reserve Act, by allowing it to funnel up to $25 Billion from the Fed's discount window to its brokerage clients who were getting hit with margin calls, the Federal Reserve and Chairman Ben Bernanke telegraphed an incredibly dangerous message to global markets: we're just as unaccountable as Wall Street. The Federal Reserve as enabler under Alan Greenspan created today's problem and today's Crony Fed under Ben Bernanke is killing off what's left of U.S. financial credibility. (I had barely finished typing these words on Monday, March 17, 2008, when a news alert came across my screen advising that the Federal Reserve was taking the breathtaking step of making direct loans to all brokerage firms which are primary dealers for Treasury securities.)

The Federal Reserve is stumbling around in the dark and regularly bumping into the next bailout because it stopped being an independent monetary force and started taking its marching orders from Wall Street quite some time ago.

Here's what Nancy Millar, President at the time of the National Organization for Women in New York City, presciently testified in writing to the Securities and Exchange Commission in August 2001. (Ms. Millar edited and signed this testimony while I and other Wall Street activists provided input. This testimony is available in full on the SEC's web site.)

    We thank the Securities and Exchange Commission for extending the comment period to September 4, 2001 in the critical area of bank oversight now that the lines between banks and brokerage firms have been blurred with the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act.

    We believe that the comments made in the letter dated June 29, 2001 from the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency should be disregarded in their totality. The banks of America have enough lobbyists and trade associations to argue their case before the SEC. It is not the charter or mandate of these three regulatory bodies to lobby on behalf of banks.

    The body of evidence that should dictate how the SEC must now proceed since Congress saw fit to eliminate the critical protections afforded the investing public in the Glass-Steagall Act, resides in the tens of thousands of pages of transcripts of the Pujo Committee hearings held in 1913 and the Pecora Committee hearings of 1933 and 1934. Fancy promises from regulators that banks functioning in the dual role as brokerage firms can and will be self-policing is not what the SEC or Congress should rely on. The well-developed history of egregious abuses bestowed on the investing public prior to the enactment of Glass-Steagall, and since its recent repeal, is what the SEC and Congress must look to. To believe that the dynamics of power and greed have been materially altered in nine decades is to engage in naiveté at the public's peril.

    Our Nation's prosperity, democracy and the productivity of its citizens demand a level playing field to acquire and safeguard financial assets. Society crumbles when assets achieved through years of honest hard work can be fleeced by brokerage firms masquerading as insured-deposit banks. It is the role of federal regulators to maintain a level playing field through stringent regulation.

    We ask that the SEC immediately impose the same regulations that govern outside broker-dealers to securities' operations within banks. And, we herewith ask Congress to reconsider the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act or be held accountable for the peril that unfolds from this unwise and inadequately deliberated decision.

If ever there was evidence that America is now facing that peril, it was the most recent news that the Bush administration's much touted "free and efficient market" had priced Bear Stearns at $30 a share at the close of trading on Friday, March 14, 2008 but on further examination of its books over the weekend, it was valued at $2 a share and absorbed by JPMorgan at that price.

Equally troubling is the growing awareness among Wall Street veterans that neither the Federal Reserve nor the U.S. Treasury comprehend was has happened here, much less how to contain it. Here's what we heard from Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, last week:

"regulation needs to catch up with innovation and help restore investor confidence but not go so far as to create new problems, make our markets less efficient or cut off credit to those who need it."

Innovation? Less efficient? Is there anything at all that looks innovative or efficient about Wall Street today? It is a seized up house of cards built on a toxic formula of hubris, corruption and free market madness.

Before there is a complete breakdown, Congress must quickly address the five key reasons we have today's mess on our hands:

(1) Incentive: from mortgage brokers paid higher fees to sell subprime loans rather than prime loans, to stockbrokers paid dramatically higher fees to sell mortgage-backed securities rather than U.S. Treasury securities, to investment bankers paid dramatically higher fees to package Collateralized Debt Obligations rather than issue plain vanilla corporate bonds, Wall Street has been incentivized to greed rather than honest service to investors.

(2) Artificial Demand: The above outsized incentive produced a glut of unwanted and unneeded product that had to be eventually hidden off Wall Street's balance sheet in Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs) or dressed up to look like Commercial Paper and buried in mom and pop money market funds. It is this glut and the lack of transparency as to where else this toxic paper is hiding that is creating the fear and panic on Wall Street.

(3) Counterparty Risk: The regulators allowed Wall Street firms/banks to balloon their asset base and pretend they were meeting capital adequacy tests by buying "insurance" in the form of derivative contracts. There was only one problem with these "hedging" techniques; the counterparty in many cases was just another Wall Street firm or an inadequately capitalized municipal bond insurer. Instead of spreading risk, the risk was concentrated among the same players.

(4) Glass-Steagall Act: Congress was incentivized through Wall Street campaign financing to throw reason and judgment out the window and repeal the only law that stood between the country and another 1929. Glass-Steagall must be restored; and public financing of federal campaigns is the only means of restoring the will of the governed to Washington.

Pam Martens worked on Wall Street for 21 years; she has no securities position, long or short, in any company mentioned in this article. She writes on public interest issues from New Hampshire. She can be reached at [e-mail]

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: autolycus
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 02:37 AM

I see the banks -somewhat Conservative institutions - are going cap in hand to governments - I repeat, to governments - for a hand.

Thought conservatives want to get rid of government as much as possible.

Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Jim Lad
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 04:00 AM

I'm sure that most of you here will understand this but I'll go ahead and say it anyway.
Bailing out one major financial institution is cause for concern.
Bailing out two should evoke a deep feeling of impending doom.
Any more than that would be the equivalent of just printing more money and is less than a step away from total collapse.
Serious stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 05:42 AM

There are several sets of potential losers whan a bank goes bust.

1.    Financial institutions who are depositors
2.    Others who are depositors
3.    Recipients of company pensions
4.    Purchasers of funded pensions, annuities, etc
5.    Corporate lenders to that bank
6.    Shareholders and bondholders
7.    Those who undertake commercial trade (anything from builders to those involved in banking clever products eg derivitives)

Those in category 2 should receive government guarantees.
Those in category 4 should receive some government guarantees.

The rest can take their chances in (US) Chapter 7 or Chapter 11.


It all depends what youmean by "bailing out".

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 07:34 AM

At least it's one less bear to sell in the bear market.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Deckman
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 07:37 AM

Reg, I don't care what ANYONE else thinks ... I think your song is spot on! Bob

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 08:29 AM

Just think that it only took 46 hours for Bear Stearns to go from business as usual to falling prey to the rumor they were in trouble.
Once the rumor had legs no one would lend a dime to BS.

Lehman Bros have now fallen 26% this week.

With the financial and credit companies reeling guess who is going to have a public offering of common stock this month... VISA

This may be one IPO one should steer clear of. People may soon prefer to have food and shelter than pay their VISA bill.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 11:11 AM

'Gigi, I assume that you've never been shot in the face or anywhere else or have seen someone who has been. If you had you wouldn't be so quick to wish it on Cheney or anyone else.'

Thanks for saying that, Rapaire. You have the courage to be real.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 11:21 AM

Maybe if it were called BULL Stearns something different would have happened?

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Art Thieme
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 11:50 AM

Bear Stearns, it was just announced, is now the new head football coach at Notre Dame!!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 01:37 PM

And from an old sea shanty/railroad song:

He-bang, she-bang, daddy shot a bear
Shot it in the stern, me boys, and never turned a hair
We're all from the railroad, too-rer-loo
Oh, the old moke pickin' on the banjo.

Chorus:

Hooraw! What the hell's the row?
We're all from the railroad, too-rer-loo
We're all from the railroad, too-rer-loo
Oh, the old moke pickin' on the banjo!

Somehow I get this vision of a shanty chorus marching up wall street to the stock exchange, singing this song, bursting through the doors, consternation all around, jaws dropping!

Oh, well, they'd probably just haul us away and lock us up, charged with being a public nuisance.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 01:37 PM

It would be a minor injury to Cheney in comparison to what he has done and caused to so many others.

Good idea for government to nationalise banks like this, guarantee individual depositors and pensionholders, and Chapter 11 or Chapter 7 the rest.

If they keep doing it, we get a financial system not run by capitalists for capitalists.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: autolycus
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 02:39 PM

If a company of 85+ years standing as a "pillar etc. etc." can go from wonderful to nonederful in around 40 or so hours, is it little wonder there's so much cynicism, not caring, hedonism, criminality et cetera?

Huge numbers of people worked out a long time ago that the game isn't worth slogging at for decades and for what? So why? And they pass on the info from generation to generation.




"Bailing out".   Northern Rock by being nationalised; other financial institutions by getting government (i.e. our) money.

Most businessses don't get that kind of help; they get bankruptcy.


Ivor


Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 04:23 PM

Some spin masters have reassured us that Bear Stearns did not get a bail out woith taxpayer's money. He explained that the Federal Reserve merely created more money to resupply the liquidity problem and sought a viable buyer in JP Morgan bank to continue business as usual.

that is 14 carat BS.

What is really golden however is
the Bush plan that will positively help 4% of Americans who face foreclosure.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 07:01 AM

Same thing as Northern Rock in UK (see Crash of U.S. Economy thread)

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 07:06 AM

Bare Sterns!

G.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Bobert
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 09:39 AM

We certainly need some "Welfare Reform"... Seems that the fat cats have grown accustomed to the working class payin' to keep them fat...

Problem is that the working class is stretched to thin to keep subsidizing the rich...

BTW, the only real money that George W. Bush ever made (if you can call it that) was $16M that he and a consortium of other crooks/investors flim-flamed Arlington, Texas tax payers out of...

To make matter worse, Bush then claimed it all a capital gain and paid an much smaller tax on when most of it was legally considered compenastion which would have had him pay a larger amount... The IRS never audited those returns but as a result Bush flim-flamed the IRS outta another 2 or 3 Million Dollar$$$$....

So it is no wonder that the folks who made the bad loans and took home the big pay checks for doing it aere now being rewarded with my hard earned tax buck$$$$...

This is why we don't need another Bush in the White House... McCain says he doesn't understand the eonomy... That is scarey... Bush soesn't understand it either... He is just another petty tax cheating lawyer from Texas...

No bail out for crooks!!!

B~

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 10:15 AM

All caused by GREED -- ain't unchecked capitalism grand?

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 10:28 AM

doncha know

the republican party line is no taxes (for the rich)
and NO REGULATIONS that tie the hands of corporations to do what ever it takes to take your money.

Drug crazed zombies who say different are inconveinient unpatriotic stem cell lovin tree huggin godless traitors who hate our troops.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 02:36 PM

Bush was a lawyer? How did he pass the exams, or did Jeb fix the machines there too?

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: The Vulgar Boatman
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 05:54 PM

Bloody hell Giok, it's about banking then. Oh well, there goes another old sailor's fantasy.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 08:57 PM

Employees of Lehman Brothers own about 30% of the stock. There are some 28,000 employees.
The rest of the stock is owned by 23,000 stockholders of record and 426,000 common stockholders.

Please remember that these thousands of stockholders are like you and me; we have bought stock with our savings, or have a share through our pension funds or a share through our bank or other savings plan; the employees also are like you and me, working for salary and/or commission.

Were a concern like Lehman Brothers to fail, many thousands or investors and employees would lose their savings and/or livelihood.
I picked Lehman Brothers to outline here rather than Bear Stearns because at one time I did have a few of their shares and thus have a slight knowledge of the firm. Its resources have funded many business start-ups since its beginnings back in the 1850s or so.

The loss of Bear Stearns is a heartbreaker for many people, not just a few fat cats. The federal government would be remiss if it did not try to at least soften the blow. Although taken over by J. P. Morgan etc. most of their staff is now redundant and looking for other jobs. Many thousands of people have a big hole in their savings plan.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 10:30 PM

Reggie, I thought your song was great, too!

Charle, thanks for the one you added and the *visual*!

Q...good point.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Mar 08 - 09:16 PM

Bear Stearns had 14,000 employees. Most will be looking for work. Some had their savings in company stock.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Mar 08 - 09:53 PM

Malvina Reynolds had a solution to the laid off financial consultants:

The bankers and the diplomats are going in the army...

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Mar 08 - 11:03 PM

Malvina Reynolds- Long dead espouser of Communist ideology.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Mar 08 - 11:40 PM

Bush has an MBA from Yale which was more of an alma mater contribution gift.

Bear Stearns management people are creeps ass holes liars and theives.
I used to work for them 26 years ago.

The cut throat nature between emplyees is only outdone by the disgraceful way in which they churn clients accounts.

Churning is making useless or senseless trades simply to crank out artificial commisions.

To get an idea of their crass mentality, all office supplies are purchased by THE EMPLOYEE. They wear a $50 blll in their white shirt pocket so it shows through (some use a fiver) as some kind of money logo.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Newport Boy
Date: 21 Mar 08 - 05:18 AM

Each time I see the thread title, the singer in my head goes:

"Oops, there goes another investment bank."

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Mar 08 - 06:35 AM

Many thousands of people work for these banks, which are necessary for business start-up and growth.
Their employees are now worried about their livelihoods.
Trite crappy comments denigrate people who are our neighbors and friends and who contribute to the communities in which we live.

Subject: RE: BS: There goes Bear Stearns bank
From: Newport Boy
Date: 21 Mar 08 - 12:23 PM

Q - If that included me, I had no such intention. My comment was entirely musical, although I didn't spell it out.

High Hopes - "Oops, there goes another rubber-tree plant" - the phrase just rang a bell.

Phil