Economist Jeffrey Sachs: "We'll Get Out of This Mess" Written By: Michelle Haimoff 2008-03-25 22:42:35 I attended Charlie Rose’s interview of Jeffrey Sachs at the 92nd Street Y on Tuesday night. Jeffrey Sachs, who is the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and has been an economic advisor to governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former Yugoslavia, the former Soviet Union, Asia, and Africa, as well as an author and the only academic to have been repeatedly ranked among the world's most influential people by Time magazine, is about as close to a household name as an economist can get.
Fed Makes a Gift to JPMorgan Written By: David Neubert 2008-03-17 14:13:09 I bought Bear Stearns (BSC - $4.68 - down 85%) on Friday for $33.00. I thought there would be some kind of rescue package. I was wrong. Here, Portfolio.com blogger, Felix Salmon summarizes some of my comments and those by others. Instead, what I got was The Fed exacting their revenge on Bear at my expense. I also benefited by the gift that the Fed gave to JPMorgan (JPM - $40.01 up 10%). Basically, what has happened is that the market (and I) didn't expect the government to play favorites and give such a valuable asset away at the shareholders' expense.
Did Bear Stearns deserve to go away? I don't doubt it. It would seem they didn't understand their own risks and didn't treat others nicely. As someone who competed against and interviewed a couple times at Bear Stearns over my career, I think I have a fairly common opinion of the firm. They were not very good citizens in Wall Street. For example, as a free rider they did not pitch in on the 1998 rescue of LTCM, though they did benefit. They culture at Bear Stearns was one of extreme self interest, which promoted chaos.
I know several employees at Bear who are wiped out. Stock vesting at Bear Stearns was cliff vesting over three years. This means that had to stay with the firm for three years to get your stock. Compensation at Bear (and most of Wall Street) is between 25%-65% in stock. So we are looking at a least a year's worth of earnings for many Bear Stearns employees being transferred to JP Morgan shareholders. I feel bad for these guys. They weren't expecting this. I know many others may not feel bad for this unlucky group. They are very employable and it's hard to get anyone to feel bad (except for the Bush administration) for millionaires getting pay cuts.
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