Really feds. I watched my income diminished 80% over 5 years. No one bailed me out. I had to learned to live with less. Over the years , My money has bailed out corporations countrys, and saving and loans , to includes a few wars. Gentleman really, I cannot afford to continue paying you extravagant lifestyles. You must take responsibility for your misjudments and greed. No more bailouts please with my money and using my name

well Bear just confessed too early - Lehman who had much more bad paper than Bear decided to keep their mouth shut and not confess to their bad stuff - instead they played golf that weekend and heard the good news monday - i.e. that they could take their bad paper to the WINDOW and exchange it for better stuff - who did they get to make the exchange  ????? YOU AND ME  " THE TAXPAYERS " - AND GET THIS  -  BEN AND COMPANY DIDN'T EVEN ASK OUR PERMISSION - doesn't get much better dose it

Dear Chester Williams,

We understand we've been giving you the shaft over the last 5 years and haven't bailed you out.  We appreciate your generous (and mandatory) donation to our cause.  Because of your support, the executives at Bear Stearns will still be able to vacation in Tahiti this year.

Sincerely,

The Fed, Congress, Lobbyists, Bear Stearns and Cronies everywhere...

Mr. Crony,

You forgot to inform Chester Williams  that he will get a check in the mail...it should be enough to fill up his gas tank and perhaps buy some groceries!

I say enough bailing out huge corporations that rake us over the coals for energy and anything else they can by manipulating the supply to artificially create demand, and then on top of that these greedy corporations declare bankruptcy and unload their pension plans on the government for taxpayers to foot the bill all so their stock price will go up and a bunch of ceo's can cash out their stock options. they ship our jobs to china and ship the finished product to europe or elsewhere and lay americans off. they drain our pockets and our economy dry and I say it's time to start writing our congressman/women and senators and demand the government of the people, by the people and for the people do the right thing

America is the land of opportunity as long as you have no morals or good business practices.  My state is even adding more to help.  Minimum wage is going up so that those that do work can support everone on welfare including our corporate welfare programs that just gave out another $100,000,000 over 5 years in tax financing deals.  So wish i was a slutty chick or crook I would be able to retire soon.

I only have one thing to say.  Bear Stearns is worth substantially more than 10 per share.  If you dont believe this, consider this fact, all of a sudden their are nearly 100million shares that magically apear for sale when Wall Street traders refused to stand for the origional offer. With this, nearly 40% of the company's shareholders  will now vote in favor of the deal.  The government does not need to bail them out, but why not allow them to borrow as they made it available on monday to everyone else.  Not bear.... no way...   I am not a conspiracy theorist, but looking at the numbers JP will stand to make hundreds of billions of dollars off of this deal in a few years when this crisis is over.  I am starting to think that people involved in the deal are going to be profiting from everyone else's loss.

Ed

You forgot to inform Mr Williams that it would be in his best interest to save the rebate.Save it for the many tax increases to come.The executives are already planning thier vacations for next year.Not to mention we'll be funding the big party they're planning in our honor.They would like to thank us for letting them continue fleecing our country.Oh and by the way, dont wait for an invitation to the party, we're not invited.

You people are idiots.  Learn how the financial system works before commenting about something you obviously know nothing about.  I'll give Jim a small pass since he at least seems to have looked into how most of these companies have been accounting for their illiquid assets.

The Bear Stearns deal was not a bail out, just ask it's employees and share holders who lost a whole lot of money.  Also, Bear Stearns itself still has value, it simply was going to go bankrupt because nobody would loan them money any more or trade with them which basically makes them unable to operate.  You can also look at the fact that there is some expectation that the fed will actually make money on the assets they acquired from Bear Stearns since they were bought at market value and not face value and those types of assets have been extremely over sold (thus making them have a lower current market value).  Also, take any bank in the world and stop loaning it money, it will go out of business within a day or two as well.  Using your logic, NO bank is viable and they should all go out of business.  The fact of the matter is, banks operating in a mondern banking system rely on easy access to borrowed money in order to operate on a daily basis.

Obviously this is more complex than what can be written in a comment, but at least pretend to know what you're commenting about before you do so.  It was not a bail out and it was necessary.

Rumors can hurt people, and in this case, rumors or a run on the bank hurt Bear Stearns.  Our government recognized that the risk was worldwide if this financial institution fell based on rumors. A few years ago another giant company was hurting, General Motors, and our government helped it back on its feet.  It helped many who were connected, beyond the walls of GM.

Greed and fear are the enemies, not financial institutions that help us grow our retirement accounts and help our country thrive on capitalism.  A few leaders have stained the image, but don't throw rocks where they are not deserved.