Can Bear Stearns Survive?
• The Banker Who Saved Wall Street 9/11/2009 12:00:00 AM On the morning of Sept. 18, 2008, the phone rang in Jamie Dimon’s office on the 48th floor of JPMorgan Chase’s New York headquarters. It was Hank Paulson, the secretary of the Treasury, who for the second time in six months had a pressing question: would Dimon be interested in acquiring the floundering investment bank Morgan Stanley—at no cost whatsoever? • The Mother of All Bailouts Daniel Gross 7/14/2009 12:00:00 AM The five biggest banks went to the SEC and got the limits on how much leverage they can use lifted. The idea was: we’re big boys; we can handle this ourselves. And look what happened. The idea that people are rational, that even the best corporate executives at the biggest, wealthiest financial firms know what’s in their own best interest, that’s just false. We’re slightly clever, pants-wearing primates. It’s like taking a bunch of monkeys and putting a big pile of bananas in a room and saying, “Now, don’t eat all t
