No thread yet on Bear Sterns - From $170 to $2 per share?
 

I'm surprised. What a meltdown. All wrought by the housing bubble. Which most of you said, a year ago, didn't even exist. And if it did, we'd have a "soft landing" because real estate prices never decline.

What a story for Bear Stearns. If I recall correctly, this was a $170 stock at one time. Heck, Friday it opened as a $60 stock. From $60 to $2 in one day. Effectively, Bear Stearns went bankrupt. Who is next?

Apparently Lehman Bros. could be in some trouble.

Would have been a great short on Friday. I feel sorry for the people who had faith in Friday's bailout and thought that they were buying at the bottom.

It seems as if this is only the beginning. No matter has low mortgage rates go, how many people are going to sit on 100k + negative equity?

Good article here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7299938.stm

Can someone explain that deal. JPM buys BS for $2 a share and the US gov is providing free money to support the investments of BS??

Don't ask questions. Go down to your local mall and load up on more cheap Chinese-made crap. The economy needs you.

Oh, and be sure to buy a house or too today too. There is no bubble. The NAR says so.

Already a long thread on this. With an irritatingly non-descriptive title.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/398233-bear-stearns-welfare-bad-capitalism-free-market-good.html

LOL, not only non-descriptive, but goofy enough that I never bothered clicking on it.

Alan Greenspan said so too.

Is it too late for me to add that as my Stock Pick of the Year?

so is now the time to buy it at $2? (serious question)

No. It's probably under water now. JP Morgan will probably be a good buy in six months, though.

Up to $3.78 now. If you'd bought it at $2 a share you'd have almost doubled your money.

Bear Stearns had a large derivative exposure. This is the real cause of the freezing of the finacial system - not sub-prime, that's just a convenient label to feed the confused and disinterested masses.

$618 TRILLION of derivatives outstanding as of Q3 2007 (add the 'all markets' futures and options totals), created by the worldwide banking system to finance ever-growing bonuses for the banking elite... and now the same banks that created them don't want to touch them. These derivatives have been sold into our houses, pensions and stock market.

table -

http://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qa0712.pdf#page=108


Our financial system is in a mess so profoundly deep and complicated that no one can get a good handle on what needs to be done.

In fact, there is very little that can be done. Our fractional reserve system does not allow for a contraction of money in the economy. New debt has to be created to continue the cycle, but it appears we have reached the top, and now we must face the consequences of the greed that has ruled our lives for the last few decades.

Actually, you can't buy it at $2 per share. That's the price that JP Morgan is going to pay to buy them out.

Last week it was trading at $70, then $60, then on Friday I think it went to $30 or so. This morning, it went to the $4 range. I think it's $3-something right around now.

I'm not sure why it's still even that high, given the $2 JPM buyout price. There may be some reason for it that makes sense, but I don't know. It could also be that it makes no sense for it to still be even trading at $3. Kind of like when there is still a market for stock of a company that is in bankruptcy, and it still trades at $1 or so. That never made any sense to me, given that in the bky, the equity (stockholders) are always wiped out (so the stock will be worth $0).

4.97 now...i opend a td ameritrade account but i am a newbie....did not buy(and it was like $3.85)

What Wayne said.

-I will point out, however, that in my zip code, over the past year home sales are up 2.8% and median home price is up 11.8%. I suspect that the housing "bust" has ended in some areas. Now's the time to buy, if you have the cash.

N

You live in Florida, right?

Is there a San Juan Capistrano, FL?

Anyways, here's the chart for Ft. Lauderdale. Ya think that dark blue line is poised to start going up again any time soon?

http://www.housingbubblebust.com/OFH...hs/Florida.PNG

Too bad you didn't buy! Could have made 80% in one day!

$6.72 now