White collar bandits from JPMorgan Chase staged a broad daylight heist at Bear Stearns. They got away with an estimated $33 billion dollar portfolio (only $2 Billion is exposed to sub-prime, rest $31 billion Prime/ Alt-A/ commercial safe investments) and dropping a measly $236 million for it in the tip jar, on their way out. Just the Bear Stearns NY office tower alone is worth $1.2 billion! Today, JPM wasted no time in moving their bankers into their newly acquired prime New York tower.

Remember, this is a 10 day timeline!!

They offered $2 for a share which was selling for $170 last year (+ Feds offered a $30 billion guarantee). Even if deal goes bad for JPM, thats just $236 million, lunch money for the behemoth bank. And just for records, Bear Stearns posted a profit of $2 billion for 2006.

For a firm which survived the Great Depression of 1929, the timeline of the collapse was stunning. It took just 2-3 days, and everything was over in a flash.

- Last Monday (March 10, 2008), rumors started flying about Bear Stearns’s investor nervousness about its liquidity.
- Tuesday, their CEO appeared on CNBC to dispel the rumors, and assured that the company is worth $80/share.

Then Jim Cramer (Mad Money TV) pumped up the stock and said " “No! No! No! Don’t move your money from Bear. Thats just silly, just silly!”" (when the stock was at $62)

…. from there it took just 2-3 days for it to drop to $2 a share. The firm suffered from what is called "Bank Run" - a term that will a chill down a bankers spine (assuming they have one)  - where all creditors and depositors demand their money bank at the same time.

And guess what Bear Stearns’ Chairman was doing while his Rome was burning?  You won’t believe this. Incredible!