At a mere $276 million, celebrity talk-show host and entertainment billionaire Oprah Winfrey could afford to buy Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC), which closed Tuesday at $5.91 per share and keeps on climbing to over $6.50 a share in morning trading. The story alone and the associated publicity would be worth at least that. Furthermore, she could at least make an offer and demand a meeting with the Federal Reserve Board to discuss the issue.

If her offer was rejected, she would still be able to generate millions of dollars of publicity and perhaps she might want to acquire the asset, in particular if the Fed is going to protect the acquirer from potential losses. She could really become an international mogul, the likes of which has not been seen. We all know that Oprah wants to do good. She is so giving, this could be the ultimate.

I could just see the headlines: Oprah Winfrey takes on JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and the Federal Reserve to rescue John Q. Public.

Sara Lee Corporation (NYSE:SLE), manufacturers of Ball Park Franks, Jimmy Dean sausage, and Sara Lee fatty baked snacks, has completed the spin-off of its Hanes division to form a separate company, Hanesbrands, (NYSE:HBI), which began trading yesterday, September 6. Current Sara Lee shareholders received one share of Hanesbrands stock for every eight shares of Sara Lee. The Hanesbrands moniker includes some very common names: Hanes underwear, made famous by Michael Jordan in his series of "you have been briefed" ads; Bali and Wonder bras; as well as L'eggs and Just My Size hoisery.

Several years ago, Sara Lee Coroporation management decided to reduce the range of the portfolio of brands that had grown to cover snack foods, beverages, as well as household and body care products, and a line of intmate and casual clothing. One does have to wonder whoever thought it was a good idea to merge fatty snacks with an underwear company in order 'to achieve transformational synergies' or some such business lunacy. Probably best not to think about the image too long.

Approximately 95 million shares of Hanesbrands stock were distributed to Sara Lee stockholders in the transaction. Sara Lee Corporation received $2.4 billion for the stock from Hanesbrands. In its first day of trading, Hanesbrands stock closed at $22.20, up $1.90, with 3.7 million shares trading hands.