What got people's attention was how quickly Bear Stearns, the nation's fifth largest investment bank, could go from a stock market value of about $3.5 billion ... on March 14 to being sold at the bargain-basement price of about $236 million two days later ... The Federal Reserve rushed in to take unprecedented actions. It provided a $30 billion line of credit to facilitate the sale and is employing Depression-era provisions that for the first time are providing direct Fed loans to investment banks.Can someone remind me again ... What's the logic behind bailing out people and institutions who make stupid decisions? Oh, that's right. If things blow up Americans are going to start calling for "adult supervision" (i.e. regulation) of the economy.
And in the war of ideas between common sense regulation or corporate bailouts, we all know who's going to win that one, right?
- Mark
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