Bear Stearns disappears today

An amazing fall from grace. After 85 years, the Great Depression and countless recessions, Bear Stearns will no longer exist after today. The business and economic policies promoted by McCain's "economic brain" Phil Gramm has taken its toll, forcing the government to bail out what was previously one of the hottest companies on Wall Street. Still no explanation beyond "we had to in order to prevent a collapse" from anyone in Washington, as if Wall Street is the only place experiencing trouble. A once in a lifetime opportunity to leverage power for change was missed by Washington and very little remorse from Wall Street.

The entire event sickens me. It sickens me that it came to this. It sickens me that everyone turned a blind eye to the obvious failed logic that enriched so many. It sickens me to see how many lives are being ruined. It sickens me to see the chairman unloading all of his stock and profiting "only" $61 million in the middle of this collapse. It sickens me that even now, nobody in Washington addresses what is a very important event. The list goes on and none of it is good. If you have the stomach, the link above is a good overview (and interview) of that failure. It's still debatable whether those in power on Wall Street or Washington fully grasp the seriousness of this series of events. With talk of more mega-mergers, it's not clear that anyone gets it.