Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Bear Stearns Under the Microscope

Thirty billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money was used to back the sale of Bear Stearns, which was on the verge of collapse. U.S. legislators wanted to know if that guarantee was a wise decision, considering the economic crisis facing ordinary Americans.

I particularly like the question from Senator Bunning (~ 2 min mark): "How could you let the entire financial system become so fragile that it can not tollerate ONE failure?"

It took a while for the helicopter man to respond and then he babbled on about Credit booms, unwise financial innovation/underwriting standards, risk taking, letting down the guard, etc... A good clip

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