Bear (Stearns) Market It is hard to understate the absolutely remarkable turn of events in the last 24 hours regarding the sale of Bear Stearns to JP Morgan. The sale amounts to about $2 per share. Depending on when you take your valuation, that amounts to *less* than pennies on the dollar. What JP Morgan's $270 million bought barely covers the cost of Bear Stearn's Manhattan real estate. The Bear business was worth less than nothing.

In other word, Bear Stearns absolutely failed. It imploded in a matter of days. There is no question. Saying they were "bought" or "sold" rather than "liquidated" is only a matter of semantics because the Federal Reserve is in full blown panic mode.

I would like to formally welcome the investor class to the recession the rest of us have been experiencing for the past couple of years.

I have only a second-hand passing knowledge of Bear Stearns and their culture, but of the people I know who deal with them, Bear are was roundly regarded as the arrogant asses of the street. Karma is a bitch. It's too bad that many innocent bystanders are going to get hurt too.  ¶ 8:58 AM