What Really Killed Bear Stearns? - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds -- DealBook - New York Times

Remember a month or so ago when the WSJ had a series of articles on Bear? I thoght they were great. Well this may be better! By Bryan Burrough who helped write "Barbarians at the Gate" (one of my all time favorites).

What Really Killed Bear Stearns? - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds -- DealBook - New York Times:

One look in:

"According to Mr. Burrough’s account, Bear did not have a liquidity problem, at least at first. In fact, he said it had more than $18 billion in cash to cover its trades when the week began. There were no major withdrawals until late in the week, after rumors flew that the company was in trouble.

A top Bear executive told Mr. Burrough, “There was a reason [the rumor] was leaked, and the reason is simple: someone wanted us to go down, and go down hard.”

Bear executives frantically tried to find the source of the rumors, but failed to do so in time. They have their suspicions, and they have turned over the names to federal authorities that are investigating the matter."

If that was all the article would be great, but there is so much more. Granted some is based on rumor and sort of one sided and designed to sell magazines, but who cares? A very good read!

And the NY Times Deal Book goes even further providing links to Fed meetings on the collapse. This will definitely be used in class!

Fed's Minutes from March 14 Meeting (PDF):

Fed's Minutes from March 16 Meeting (PDF)