The New York Times reported a blockbuster revelation from yesterday's Congressional testimony on the JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) acquisition of The Bear Stearns Companies (NYSE: BSC). It turns out that the religious right and government bailouts go hand in hand -- that's because Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson decided that he would not put $30 billion worth of taxpayer money at risk unless JPMorgan paid a really low price for Bear.

The reason? Moral hazard. Specifically, Paulson wanted to use Bear as an example that would scare all the other banks that borrowed $32 for every dollar of equity to buy Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) and other difficult -to-value securities. Paulson wanted to wipe out Bear shareholders so they would be reluctant to seek government help if they got into trouble.

And another thing. Alan Schwartz, Bear's CEO, claims to have misunderstood and thought it was a 28-day loan granted on Friday 14th. This would have given him a month to straighten things out. But he later learned that the loan lasted only for the weekend. And he would need to file for bankruptcy or accept the deal that Paulson was offering. Faced with two terrible choices, Schwartz took the Paulson deal.

How much will taxpayers lose due to Paulson's moral qualms? Was this really necessary? Wouldn't the 28-day loan have avoided this?

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

How Paulson engineered the Bear bailout originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Although they might have messed up Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) far worse than anyone could have imagined such a venerable institution could be messed up, you'll happy to know that current CEO Alan Schwartz and chairman and former CEO James Cayne are staying on top of their real estate holdings.

Back in February -- while his company was in the midst of imploding -- James Cayne spent $27.4 million on two adjacent apartments at New York City's Plaza.

Something is badly wrong with corporate governance/executive compensation when a guy can sit by -- or in Cayne's case, play bridge and smoke doobies -- while one of the financial world's most revered institutions collapses under his watch -- and still have enough left to spend $27 million on two condos.

Meanwhile, Mr. Schwartz had pulled his $4.5 million property off the market and is renting it out.

Thankfully, these guys aren't out of the woods yet. They'll likely spend years dealing with a slew of class-action lawsuits stemming from the collapse of the company they destroyed. As Gary Weiss recently reported, Bear Stearns is no stranger to lawsuits.

Bear Stearns executives change real estate plans originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.