I'd ascribe credit to the photo to the left, but it was on one of those chain e-mails. It feels a bit that Bear Stearns had an ill wind blow up their kilt, and their collective arse is being exposed.They mark the first to fall. Their business was highly concentrated in much of the specious structured debt that has contaminated the financial system.
It does appear that the Fed is working in lockstep to prevent a debilitating crash in a financial institution--not to save it, but rather to stabilize the situation while remediation efforts are underway. If BSC were forced to sale the illiquid securities that it holds, then such a fire sale would ignite another wave of writedowns that would endanger other institutions.
Is BSC the last? Whose to know. But the sooner these floaters (I've posted here the surprising lack of floaters), bob to the surface and make themselves known, the sooner confidence can begin to build.
May only fair winds lift your kilt.
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