So the crash didn't happen this week, thanks to the $200 billion liquidity injection, plus a bit of Spitzer-induced euphoria for the traders on the floor.
But what's left of the Carlyle Amsterdam fund is still being seized, and Bear Stearns needed a bail-out anyway today - more of your money at work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/business/15bear.html?_r=1&hp&oref=sloginRun on Big Wall St. Bank Spurs Rescue Backed by U.S.
By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
Published: March 15, 2008
Just three days ago, the head of Bear Stearns, the beleaguered investment bank, sought to assure Wall Street that his firm was safe.
But those assurances were blown away in what amounted to a bank run at Bear Stearns, prompting JPMorgan Chase and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to step in on Friday with a financial rescue package intended to keep the firm afloat. The move underscores the extreme stresses that the credit crisis has imposed on the financial system and raises the once-unthinkable prospect that major Wall Street firms might fail.
The developments may only postpone the eventual sale of all or part of Bear Stearns, which has had crippling losses on mortgage-linked investments. To keep the 85-year-old firm solvent, JPMorgan, backed by the New York Fed, extended a secured line of credit that gives Bear Stearns at least 28 days to shore up its finances or, more likely, to find a buyer.
News of the bailout ignited fears that other big banks remain vulnerable to the continuing credit crisis, and stocks tumbled in another rocky day for the markets. Financial shares led the way, with shares of Bear Stearns plunging 47 percent. Hours after the rescue was announced, another Wall Street firm, Lehman Brothers, said it had secured a three-year credit line from banks. Its stock fell 15 percent....
JP Morgan, eh? What's their exposure in this?
Could they fail? Unthinkable!
So what's on the menu to avoid next week's crash?
Another $400 billion down the sinkhole, another ton of bricks dropped on the dollar boat?
A $20 Walmart gift certificate (150% APR) for everyone?
New oil reserves discovered on the moon? Tulips on Mars? Monetize the air?
Can they bring back the Soviet Union and have it fail again?
An attack on Iran? 9/11 plus Seven?
What's left in the arsenal?
Anything but to acknowledge that late capitalism has trashed the planet and made debt slaves of us all. And trashed the planet. Anything but to end the eternal war, build railways, go solar, feed the world's people.
Kooyanisqatsi (Hopi): crazy life, a way of life that cannot be sustained, a condition that demands another way.