There is a certain irony in Bear Stearns being the first heavyweight victim of the current economic crisis, as a "bear" market is one in which everybody wants to sell, and few want to buy. It is a market of pessimism. There could not be a more fitting description than this for a Bear Stearns share.

Besides the comical coincidence, there is nothing funny in the alleged 30 USD bi injection of Federal funds to keep the tony financial institution afloat. I suppose the injection is not meant to save 30,000 jobs, after all, the prorated amount would be 1,000,000 per saved job. I don’t think mail room clerks at BS (another comical twist) made that much money. Plus, with J P Morgan’s takeover a lot of former BS employees will get pink slips, as they will become redundant.

At the end of the day, even with J P Morgan upgrading its offer to about 10 bucks a share, the takeover of the bank is very much a steal, as the BS headquarters building in NY, alone might still be worth more than the purchase value.

I do understand there would be a psychological effect if a major Wall Street company such as BS failed. This would rub off on all others, everybody would seek liquidity the market does not have, and the selling binge would result in an unprecedented crash.

The real problem is that now folks that might be about to lose their house because of $5,000 might be compelled to believe the government should bail them out too. The reasoning would not be totally off-mark, after all, although BS management will not come out unscathed, 2 or 10 bucks a share is still a lot of money for people that goofed big time. It sure beats zero.

Just how far the bail-outs will go, remains to be seen. The President has asked people to spend the relief money they are getting from the government, which is easier said than done, especially when people are paying as much as 30% in credit card APR.

Uncalled for greed that pervades the land is the problem, and it is very difficult to feel sorry for speculators.