{"id":2079,"date":"2008-05-30T06:11:47","date_gmt":"2008-05-30T10:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=2079"},"modified":"2008-05-30T06:13:08","modified_gmt":"2008-05-30T10:13:08","slug":"miller-bear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/miller-bear","title":{"rendered":"Miller Bear"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bear Stearns’ sale to JP Morgan<\/a> was approved by shareholders yesterday. As a buildup to the vote, the Wall Street Journal ran an epic three-part article (1<\/a>, 2<\/a>, 3<\/a>) chronicling the sudden collapse of BS. I know most of you aren’t as interested in the machinations of business and finance as I am, but I think Kate Kelly tells a pretty amazing story, not least because it supports my thesis that Miller’s Crossing<\/a> can be used to explain almost anything.<\/p>\n

In this case, I’d like to contrast this passage from Ms. Kelly’s series of articles —<\/p>\n

The brokerage’s sudden fall was a stark reminder of the fragility and ferocity of a financial system built to a remarkable degree on trust. Billions of dollars in securities are traded each day with nothing more than an implicit agreement that trading partners will pay up when asked. When investors became concerned that Bear Stearns wouldn’t be able to settle its trades with clients, that confidence evaporated in a flash.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— with this moment when Tom Regan confronts crime-boss Leo with the precariousness of his position after the great Danny Boy<\/a> scene:<\/p>\n

Last night made you look vulnerable. You don’t hold elected office in this town. You run it because people think you run it. Once they stop thinking it, you stop running it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I make light of it, but it’s truly frightening, how huge a role perception plays in finance. Once the loss of confidence is even a rumor, an 85-year-old company can collapse within days.<\/p>\n

(You could argue that BS’s collapse was actually an internal rot that took several years to manifest itself, like an elderly cancer patient who puts of going to the doctor until it’s far too late. I don’t think there’s a Miller’s Crossing analog for that, but I can go check.)<\/p>\n

Then there’s the great passage when JPM is negotiating to buy BS. JPM originally offered $8-$12 per share, then came back with an offer of $2 per share<\/em> — the final price turned out to be $10\/share, down from $131.58 last October — reminding me of Tom’s negotiations on the phone with Bernie Bernbaum, the shmatte kid:<\/p>\n

I figure a thousand bucks is reasonable. So I want two thousand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Seriously, I think these articles are pretty important, if you’re looking for perspective on how the seize-up in credit markets is impacting, um, everything in our day-to-day. If they’re registration-required, lemme know and I can e-mail them over to you.<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 1<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 2<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Part 3<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 as I am, but I … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Miller Bear”<\/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":[175,176,146],"class_list":["post-2079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business","tag-bear-stearns","tag-jp-morgan","tag-millers-crossing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-xx","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1621,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/bear-stearns-bare-stern","url_meta":{"origin":2079,"position":0},"title":"Bear Stearns: Bare, Stern","author":"Gil","date":"August 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":3139,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/well-it-was-sorta-like-d-day","url_meta":{"origin":2079,"position":1},"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":2053,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/friendship-character-rebounding","url_meta":{"origin":2079,"position":2},"title":"Friendship, character . . . rebounding","author":"Gil","date":"May 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Separated at birth: Charles Barkley from tonight's TNT NBA playoff pregame show, and Jon Polito (as Johnny Caspar in Miller's Crossing). \"I'm a sporting man. I like to lay the occasional bet.\"","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/polbark.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1008,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/make-mine-millers-crossing","url_meta":{"origin":2079,"position":3},"title":"Make Mine Miller’s Crossing","author":"Gil","date":"June 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"What movie have you seen the most?","rel":"","context":"With 15 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 15 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/make-mine-millers-crossing#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1903,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/hedge-fun","url_meta":{"origin":2079,"position":4},"title":"Hedge Fun","author":"Gil","date":"February 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Some editor at ESPN has deep ambivalence about Stephen Jackson: A CLEAN LOOK People have lots of ideas about Stephen Jackson. Almost none of them are quite right. To quote Miller's Crossing (again), \"Don't let on more than you have to.\"","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2365,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-sept-5-2008","url_meta":{"origin":2079,"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\/2079","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=2079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}