Bear Stearns, pushed to the brink of bankruptcy by what amounted to a run on the bank, agreed late Sunday to sell itself to JPMorgan Chase for a mere $2 a share, narrowly averting a collapse that threatened to cascade through the financial system.
The price represents a startling 93 percent discount to Bear Stearns’ closing stock price on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Bankers and policy makers raced to complete the deal before financial markets in Asia opened on Monday, as fears grew that the financial panic could spread if Bear Stearns failed to find a buyer.
i dont see how a (quite literal) decimation can be viewed as anything but a collapse. i’d recommend you all to start stashing away some canned food and lots of drinking water.
on a side note: anyone think that the Fed and various large Wall Street firms are now running around like chickens with their heads chopped off?
doop HQ 
The fact that a government that only enjoys intervening in other country’s affairs stepped in immediately and helped bankroll the Morgan transaction shows how serious this thing is.
I think it was the right thing to do — prolonging the laissez faire wet dream would only make things more, er, messy. But I think Paul Krugman is right about a big ass bail out coming. All those voters who plotz at the thought of their tax dollars being spent on social welfare are going to instead rescue people who have been shipping their jobs overseas and screwing them over on mortgage terms.
the so-called owners still land on their feet. it’s always the working class(even if they are working in a high-paying job) who are gonna get wiped out.