The chutzpah of Bear Stearns (BSC)

Posted Aug 7th 2007 4:45PM by Julie Tilsner
Filed under: Blogs, Insider Blogging, Bear Stearns Cos (BSC), Housing

Wow. My eyebrows raised when I read that Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) chose to liquidate two of its bankrupt hedge funds in the Cayman Islands, presumably to limit how much cash their bilked investors could recoup.

Then I puzzled over a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed piece (subscription required) flacked out by Bear Stearns' chief economist David Malpass today. The WSJ is infamous for its right-wing nut job opinions (in contrast to its reputation for solid business reporting). But this one was a real Marie Antoinette-channeling doozy:

"Housing and debt markets are not that big a part of the U.S. economy, or of job creation. It's more likely the economy is sturdy and will grow solidly in coming months, and perhaps years."

Funny, but two-thirds of Americans think we're already in a recession, or will be soon, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll taken last week. But heck, what do I know?

So you really have to hand it to Barry Ritholtz over at The Big Picture, who put it all together and called a spade a spade.

He writes:

"I bet that the idiotic idea for this steaming pile of manure came from way higher up the Bear Stearns food chain. I'll bet he ground his molars down while writing this garbage. Jimmy Cayne must really want to keep his job in the worst way."

That's why I love the Blogosphere. It's where people who do know can tap their chutzpah and tell the world what they think.

Tags: Barry Ritholtz, BarryRitholtz, Bear Stearns, BearStearns, BSC, David Malpass, DavidMalpass, The Big Picture, TheBigPicture

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-07-2007 @ 5:38PM

Zac Bissonnette said...

Chutzpah?! Why the little mashuganas! Zac

8-07-2007 @ 5:38PM

Zac Bissonnette said...

Chutzpah?! Why the little mashuganas! Zac

8-07-2007 @ 6:35PM

jon said...

To say housing and debt markets are not a big part of the economy is a factual distortion at its worst.

Lets not forget consumer spending constitutes 2/3 of the economy. The current state of declining housing price and the associated liquidity crunch translate to no more home equity borrowings to finance their spendings. Lower spending leads to lower economic activities in real term, not the nominal ones. This lower economic activities leads to layoffs and the vicious cycles begin until it sorts its way out. I do not know why WSJ says such a thing.