Did Jimmy Caynes Sexism Kill Bear Stearns?
In late 1989, Jimmy Cayne, former president and chief executive officer of Bear Stearns, told the now-defunct M magazine that Wall Street, like bridge, is not a game for women. Cayne alleged women can’t take the pressure and that a woman will “probably have to go to the ladies’ room and dab her eyes.” Grand Master Judi Radin, James Cayne’s female bridge coach at the time, was probably surprised to hear it. [Cayne later denied that the quotes were accurate, but reporter Duncan Christy claimed they were “meticulously accurate.”] Mr. Cayne seemed to fancy himself the undisputed authority on how the opposite sex may or may not relieve pressure in the privacy of the bathroom. His pretension remained unchallenged for years. But The Wall Street Journal’s Kate Kelly turned the tables on Cayne in a front-page profile on November 1, 2007. Cayne later seemed huffy, saying, “This story about smoking marijuana with some woman in a [men’s] bathroom at a tournament site is pure fiction.” The very sam
