{"id":1621,"date":"2007-08-05T16:14:04","date_gmt":"2007-08-05T21:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/bear-stearns-bare-stern\/"},"modified":"2007-08-06T05:58:40","modified_gmt":"2007-08-06T10:58:40","slug":"bear-stearns-bare-stern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/bear-stearns-bare-stern","title":{"rendered":"Bear Stearns: Bare, Stern"},"content":{"rendered":"

This NYTimes article provides the most detailed account of a firing<\/a> I’ve ever read in a paper. Warren J. Spector at Bear Stearns got the boot because his unit controlled the hedge funds that imploded a few weeks back. The first hint that it’s a weird article is the description of the firing:<\/p>\n

Sitting behind his half moon desk on which stood computer terminals and a large metal-box lighter, Mr. Cayne broke the news to Mr. Spector that he wanted his resignation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Seemed like a little more info than we needed. Then it began exploring the two men’s history with the game of bridge:<\/p>\n

Indeed, with Mr. Spector’s own talent for bridge — he achieved the rank of life master at age 16 in 1974 — and his expertise in all varieties of bonds, it was widely assumed that Mr. Cayne would pass on the reins to Mr. Spector. (The two men’s devotion to bridge is highlighted by the fact that they both attended the North American bridge championship in Nashville late last July, at a time of increasing turmoil in the credit markets.)<\/p>\n

But while bridge might have functioned as a bonding agent between Mr. Cayne and his predecessor, Alan C. Greenberg, it could not do the same for Mr. Spector — especially in the wake of the hedge fund meltdown at the firm\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s asset management division.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Did I mention there’s too much detail?<\/p>\n

In part this was a function of their sharply different personalities. Mr. Cayne is a raw, cigar-chomping man who embraces the scrappy, street-fighting ethos of the firm. Mr. Spector, who wears his thick head of hair longer than that of the standard banker, has more of suave, relaxed affect.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I guess the big question is: which guy’s the better bridge partner?<\/p>\n

(Update: The WSJ article on Spector’s firing<\/a> adds even more details, including the facts that he “wears black-rimmed glasses and maintains a trim physique”. . . and that he attended St. John’s College<\/a>, where I got my master’s degree)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This NYTimes article provides the most detailed account of a firing I’ve ever read in a paper. Warren J. Spector at Bear Stearns got the boot because his unit controlled the hedge funds that imploded a few weeks back. The first hint that it’s a weird article is the description of the firing: Sitting behind … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Bear Stearns: Bare, Stern”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-q9","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3139,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/well-it-was-sorta-like-d-day","url_meta":{"origin":1621,"position":0},"title":"Well, it was SORTA like D-Day . . .","author":"Gil","date":"December 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This article covering the collapse of Lehman Bros. and the \"death of Wall Street\" isn't as good as the multi-part extravaganza that the WSJ ran about Bear Stearns. There are way too many players involved, too small a space in which to tell the story, and so the death knell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1540,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-perfect-alibi","url_meta":{"origin":1621,"position":1},"title":"The perfect alibi","author":"Gil","date":"June 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Phil Spector couldn't possibly have killed Lana Clarkson! He was busy conducting drug-assays for Merck KgA!","rel":"","context":"In "Pharmaceuticals"","block_context":{"text":"Pharmaceuticals","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business\/pharmaceuticals"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2079,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/miller-bear","url_meta":{"origin":1621,"position":2},"title":"Miller Bear","author":"Gil","date":"May 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Bear Stearns' sale to JP Morgan was approved by shareholders yesterday. As a buildup to the vote, the Wall Street Journal ran an epic three-part article (1, 2, 3) chronicling the sudden collapse of BS. I know most of you aren't as interested in the machinations of business and finance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2409,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/long-term-my-ass","url_meta":{"origin":1621,"position":3},"title":"Long-Term, my ass","author":"Gil","date":"September 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently read When Genius Failed, Roger Lowenstein's chronicle of the rise (1994) and collapse (1998) of Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund staffed by Harvard and MIT Ph.D.s. The LTCM team developed \"risk management\" models that would allow them fund to \"vaccuum up nickels\" in massive (leveraged) quantities. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0375758259","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2133,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/thats-one-fierce-embrace-you-got-there","url_meta":{"origin":1621,"position":4},"title":"That’s one fierce embrace you got there…","author":"Gil","date":"July 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago, I goofed on NYTimes writer Nicolai Ouroussoff's starchitecture rimjob about planned cities. I contrasted it with a second NYTimes article that discussed the moral quandary of taking commissions from dictatorships. In yesterday's NYTimes, Ouroussoff managed to top himself, going gaga over the starchitecture in Beijing, conflating\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2365,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-sept-5-2008","url_meta":{"origin":1621,"position":5},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Sept. 5, 2008","author":"Gil","date":"September 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"No more Friday summer hours at my office! I'm almost too sad to post a passel of links! (for more, just click more!) NYTimes illustrator Christoph Niemann came up with a great idea for bathroom decor. * * * Of course, his decor is nowhere near as gorgeous as 1903\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}