JP Morgan Takes Out the Trash

How bad is the outlook in the financial markets? If the fall of the great Wall St. powerhouse Bear Stearns is any indication then it's bad. More than Jim Kramer ranting bad.

JP Morgan Chase agreed to buy the beleaguered Bear Stearns today for the insane and even troubling low price of $2 per share. That blows my mind. Bear Stearns a mainstay financial giant was brought to its knees from the corrosive (explosive) impact of the credit woes stemming from the sub prime mess. The fact that JP Morgan was able to snatch them up for almost free ($236 million total price) is telling to how done Bear Stearns was. Even the unprecedented offer from the Fed to accept mortgage derivative securities as collateral for securing much needed liquidity couldn't save Bear from the Bear market.

Another gauge of the magnitude of this downturn is the type of victims it has claimed. The tech bust of the 2000 era killed off a lot of crazy IT and web concoctions that had no business plans and no way to make any money. I mean come on man Loudcloud was no Citigroup. The whirlwind we are reaping now is going right after the heart of the financial system and that's what makes this particular turmoil rather frightening.