Sunday, March 16, 2008

"Too Big To Fail"

The news today is that JPMorgan Chase has agreed to buy troubled investment banking house Bear Stearns, for a price equivalent to $2 per share of outstanding Bear Stearns stock.  As the AP reports, "JPMorgan's acquisition of Bear Stearns represents roughly 1 percent of what the investment bank was worth just 16 days ago." 

The buyout -- backed by financing to JPMorgan from the Federal Reserve -- will (hopefully) head off what could have been serious damage to the world financial system had Bear Stearns collapsed. The ironic part of this story?   In 1998, Bear Stearns pointedly refused to join a rescue plan for the last major financial player that was on the brink of going under, the now-infamous Long-Term Capital Management.

 

Update:  On Drudge now:

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