Danny Schechter - ColdType

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Bamber reveals that it was not until after the deal that more
details were uncovered.
“We later learned that this was a number that was effectively
dictated to JP Morgan and Bear by the Treasury Department.
The employees who owned 30% of the shares were furious.
Many believed Bear was being punished and turned into a
sacrificial lamb. They and their investors were virtually wiped
out.” (The investor-employees raised holy hell and the share
price was raised to $10.)
The head of the firm, Alan Schwartz had no answer for Bear
executives like Alan Mintz, who angrily demanded to know
how it happened. Kate Kelly reported in the Wall Street Journal:
Two and a half months later, Mr. Schwartz still isn’t quite sure.
To Mr. Mintz and others, he has blamed a market tsunami he
didn’t see coming. He told a Senate committee last month:
“I just simply have not been able to come up with anything,
even with the benefit of hindsight, that would have made a
difference.”
Others who lived through the crisis say Bear Stearns collapsed
because it was at war – with itself.
Even as Bear began to implode, some media cheerleaders
like CNBC’s Jim Cramer backed Bear on the grounds that
the bank was solvent. “Don’t take our money out of Bear,” he
screamed. “That’s silly.”
He may not have been aware of the insider politicking, and
that the decision to kill Bear Stearns had already been made
in a forced marriage dictated by the Fed.
I asked Bamber, “Your book suggests that the Fed could have
very simply and easily loaned money to Bear to get you through
the crisis? Why go through this whole sturm and drang here?
With JPMorgan, with this whole cataclysmic collision?