bear stearns

With the announcement last week that its top seven executives would forgo annual bonuses for 2008, Goldman Sachs continues to demonstrate why it has always stood out from the rest of Wall Street as a leader that represents the best in capitalism. By giving up tens of millions of dollars in compensation, Goldman’s chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, its co-presidents, Gary Cohn and Jon Winkelried, and their colleagues understand that in tough times, leadership by example matters. Indeed, their willingness to give up money that they rightly deserve—these are the executives, after all, who deftly steered Goldman through the storm as peers such as Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch crashed and foundered on the rocks—proves why brilliant managers deserve big bucks when their companies have a good year.  read more »

"And the Bush administration and Hank Paulson are asking for taxpayers' money to keep these very same guys filthy rich? I vote NO! for the bailout plan. Have Buffett and the billionaires of the world inlcuding the Arab sheiks invest in America, but please please do not use taxpayers' money! If America falls apart, then ask these guys to return the millions of money they did not deserve!" ["Park Places! Lehman COO Sells His for $4.4 M., Ex-Bear Asking $12 M. Farther Up"]

Artist Geoffrey Raymond did not have much luck soliciting signatures on his portrait of ousted AIG Chairman Hank Greenberg when he displayed it outside the firm's Wall Street headquarters last week.

When Mr. Raymond first unfurled "The Annotated Spitzer" outside of the New York Stock Exchange 15 minutes after the governor resigned on March 12, over 100 passersby reveled in the schadenfreude, scrawling messages like "Spitzer or Swallow" around the head of Wall Street's disgraced nemesis. Mr. Raymond went on to collect 350 comments on the Spitzer portrait, less than a dozen of which were encouraging, setting the still-unsurpassed record in his nine-piece "Annotated" series.  read more »

It's Governor Paterson's turn for a statement. He chose to lay out the scope of this weekend's events:

These three firms – Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch – had nearly 30,000 employees in New York, paid roughly 10 percent of Wall Street wages, and approximately 15 percent of all Wall Street bonuses.

20 percent of State revenue is derived from Wall Street. While the full impact of these events may not be known for months or even years, the fact that financial services firms that were able to survive the Great Depression, world wars, and the September 11th attacks collapsed under the weight of the current financial crisis is cause for grave concern.

When the Bush administration brokered JPMorgan's March takeover of Bear Stearns, it stirred many questions, not least: Should the government be in the business of bailing out big business, especially when it involves billions in public money?

Apparently, the Republican Party doesn't think so. Here's an excerpt from the section about housing in the party's platform (PDF), passed on Monday at the start of its convention in St. Paul:

Homeownership remains key to creating an opportunity society. We support timely and carefully targeted aid to those hurt by the housing crisis so that affected individuals can have a chance to trade a burdensome mortgage for a manageable loan that reflects their home’s market value.

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Two Bear Stearns fund managers were arrested for securities and wire fraud this morning, becoming the first executives to face criminal charges in the wake of the subprime mortgage debacle. Wearing a polo shirt, a sport coat, and incongruous manacles, Ralph Cioffi was escorted from his home in Manhattan to federal court in Brooklyn under the bright morning sun, while his alleged co-conspirator, Matthew Tannin, was picked up in New Jersey, the AP reported today.

The nine-count indictment against the duo includes charges of conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud.

The Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a separate complaint on Thursday, accusing Mssrs.  read more »

The day after Bear Stearns shareholders approved the firm’s sale to JPMorgan Chase, the clubby men’s salon frequented by the fallen masters of the universe was buzzing as usual.

Suited, silver-haired men and their early-middle-aged protégés reclined in chairs while getting preened and massaged by young women inside John Allen’s on 46th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, barely a block from the now-former Bear Stearns headquarters at 383 Madison.  read more »

If you have the chance, get in on the ground floor of the Wall Street Journal's three-part series on the collapse of Bear Stearns. The first part debuted this morning under the headline "Lost Opportunities Haunt Final Days of Bear Stearns."

The story has everything--egos clashing, a confrontation in the office gym, ominous phone calls, bridge tournaments, and, of course, real estate (at least tangentially):  read more »

JPMorgan Chase's takeover of one-time investment giant Bear Stearns just got that much messier.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that 383 Madison LLC, the owner of the land on which Bear Stearns built its headquarters at 383 Madison Avenue, is suing Bear Stearns for violating a written agreement that allows the LLC to get first dibs on the building in the event of a sale:  read more »

I wrote in this week's paper about how, even after all the calamitous economic news (like Bear Stearns' collapse), Manhattan rents appear buoyant if not strong. Most of the average rents I cited were for one-bedroom apartments.  read more »

So sayeth Dolly Lenz regarding the Bear Stearns mess. The deific broker, whom my colleague Max Abelson sat down with earlier this year at the Four Seasons, was on CNBC and said:

"A lot of this has already been factored into the market. I think we're going to be perfectly OK, if not possibly better off."

Hat tip Curbed.

Bear Stearns chairman James Cayne was in Detroit at the start of the weekend that saw the tanking of his venerable investment bank. Why? Mr. Cayne was competing in the North American Bridge Championship, according to reports.

Also last week, as the perfect storm gathered, Mr. Cayne closed on a $25 million condo at the revamped Plaza.

The New York City rental apartment market is tied closely to the local economy, more so than the sales market. That market might see foreigners buying a lot of condos even as Americans lose their jobs. But the rental market--it tends to rise and to fall with the city's economy. Generally, job losses and uncertainty in New York translates into more vacancies and lower rents.

So the news that JPMorgan Chase and the Federal Reserve are acquiring Bear Stearns, the world's fifth-largest investment bank and one of New York's most prominent employers, could ultimately be good news for the city's renters. Grimly and pragmatically speaking, any layoffs could reduce the number of people who need to be in the city by thousands. That could free up apartments; and that greater vacancy could drive landlords to drop rents.  read more »

As the speculation around Bear Stearns turns from when and if to how and by whom, the below excerpt from The Observer's John Koblin shows just how far the investment bank has tumbled in little over a year. The excerpt is from a story dated Jan. 21, 2007.

When it comes to the relentless pursuit of prime Manhattan real estate in the last six months, Bear Stearns is unmatched.  read more »

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James Cayne, the recently resigned chief (but still chairman) of Bear Stearns, has bought a $25.8 million condo at the Plaza, according to city records.

It's been a rough year for Mr. Cayne, who left the embattled firm under a haze of recrimination following the collapse of two of its hedge funds that resulted in a $700 billion third quarter writedown in 2007 and a federal investigation. Perhaps his new 14th-floor pad will cheer Mr. Cayne up.

Investment bank Bear Stearns has reported its first-ever quarterly loss. The loss of about $854 million over the fourth quarter of 2006 exceeded fears about how badly the bank's investments in subprime mortgages would affect it, according to The New York Times.

The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that top executives at Bear Stearns would skip year-end bonuses for themselves.