Maybe I’ve grown hard hearted in my middle age, but somehow, the plight of upper management at Bear Stearns does not inspire the empathy in me that it does Landon Thomas Jr. of the New York Times.
Bear Stearns has always been one of the shadier brokerages, with line fuzzing being a part of their investment strategy, so I’m just not upset that James E. Cayne “billionaire just over a year ago when Bear’s stock soared past $160, his 5.8 million shares are now worth about $28 million at Monday’s closing price of $4.8”.
Nor am I distressed that, “Some executives had moved quickly, putting their weekend homes on the market”.
Because of their work there are now people with no home at all.
And then there are the poor investors, “Bear executives were not the only big losers. Joseph Lewis, the Bahamas-based financier, invested $1 billion at prices above $100 last year, and top institutional investors like Morgan Stanley, Legg Mason and Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss, a value investor in Dallas, have been recent buyers of the stock.”
Boo F*&%ing Hoo.