Bear Stoearns Failure Essay

An individual that played a part in the crisis include Banker Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide, his stated goal was to lower the barriers for American’s to own homes. Though intentions in such a goal are admirable, it created an environment of failures as homeowners defaulted on loans. Countywide was purchased by Bank of America in 2008. Banker James Cayne of Bear Stearns faced criticism as his institution crumbled under his leadership. He was accused of being absent as hedge funds collapsed. As an example as poor leadership during the period he stepped down, and Bear Stearns was purchased by JP Morgan in 2007. Richard Fuld Jr., Banker of Lehman Brothers Holding Inc., moved his institution in the commercial real-estate market years prior to the 2008 collapse of the market. 2008 after filing for bankruptcy Lehman’s was also sold. These are just a select few of the institutional leaders that had an impact during the crisis, but they represent how different personal and organization ethics can impact a company. Other key players involve elected officials that made key decisions to share the nation of financial depression. Henry Paulson, a policy maker with the Department of the Treasury, refused to save Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. from bankruptcy. Paulson was involved in the Troubled Asset Relief Program that was used for the bailout of banks, auto companies, and other financial institutions. Ben Bernanke, a policy maker with the Federal Reserve, was a key player in approving the funding for J.P. Morgan to purchase Bear Sterns Co.

“The Fed did not bailout Bear at taxpayer expense, but enabled – as it is mandated – the financial markets to continue to function. History will call the Fed’s action the right move at the right time”, says Jeremy Siegel, Ph.D. The Bear Stearns Company began a financial meltdown in July 2007. By March 2008, it was ready to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Some people believe that the Federal Reserve should not have stepped in to bailout Bear Stearns because it was rewarding reckless business behavior and Bear should have been left to file bankruptcy. The deal of Bear Stearns was not a government bailout; it was rather a loan to preserve jobs, homes, savings, the economy, the shareholders of Bear, and the financial

All the firms turn to the hedge funds but failed and to bail the banks, Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke asked the congress for 700 billion dollars.

At the time after the stock market crash (1929), during the Great Depression, most of the people agreed that the main cause for the event was the “improper banking activity” which was mainly seen as the bank involvement in the stock market investment. Banks were taking high risks in hope for rewards, they were “accused of being too speculative in the pre-Depression era” (HEAKAL, 2010, pg.1). They were not only investing their assets, but they were also buying issues in order to resale them to the public. Nearly five thousand banks failed in the U.S. during the Great Depression. As a result of that most people wouldn’t trust the U.S. financial structure anymore. In order to rebuild the

The move came after Bear Stearns was bleeding cash after word spread about the company’s crumbling position. European banks and other brokerage clients were pulling their investments and loans with Bear Stearns rapidly—and the company was losing billions in a week. In a swift move, the CEO of Bear Stearns, Alan Schwartz, was connected with the FED Chairman Ben Bernake, who agreed to loan money to JPMorgan if the financier company took over the quickly deteriorating Bear Stearns. It is argued that the FED was right in doing so as this move not save one of the largest American investment banks thus preventing a crushing blow to the US economy.

The Courage to Act memoir is essential reading for people who wants to know what happened at Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Aug. 5, 2008. It invokes comparisons to the Great Depression and at the same time suggests that Shucks, it was not all that great, was not a depression or anything (Bernanke). But Bernanke is persuasive in arguing that it was pretty damned high i.e. terrible and he and his members at the Fed deserve credit for the fact that it wasn 't a heck of a lot greater. Bernanke pulls back the curtain ornament on his endeavors to keep a mass commercial disappointment, working with two U.S. presidents and utilizing each Fed ability, regardless of how arcane, to keep the U.S. economy above water. His encounters amid the underlying emergency and the Great Recession that took after giving audience members a unique point of view on the American economy since 2006 and his story will uncover surprisingly how the inventiveness and definitiveness of a couple of famous pioneers kept a financial fall of unimaginable scale. The Act provide a means of different points in the banking factor by a central banking system. The Courage to Act explains the worst financial crisis and economic recession in America since the Great Recession, providing an insider 's account of the policy response.

These losses necessitated governmental action in the financial markets. Companies such as Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns lost all of their stock’s value and were forced into bankruptcy. This risk spread throughout the American banks, forcing the American government to step in and buy all of the securitized, troubled assets from the balance sheets of

In Frontline’s The Meltdown, the causes of the stock market crash of 2008 came into discussion. The topics regarding Bear Stearns, the Lehman Brothers’ and their collapse, and the huge bailout made in results to the market crash. There were great points being made on the mistakes Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke did not view from their perspective, which in turns were the problems that made up the crash.

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. With $639 billion in assets and $619 billion in debt, Lehman 's bankruptcy filing was the largest in history, as its assets far surpassed those of previous bankrupt giants such as WorldCom and Enron. Lehman was the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank at the time of its collapse, with 25,000 employees worldwide. The consequences for the world economy were extreme. Lehman’s ' fall contributed to a loss of confidence in other banks, a worldwide financial crisis and a deep recession in many countries. Lehman 's collapse roiled global financial markets for weeks, given the size of the company and its status as a major player in the U.S. and internationally. Many questioned the U.S. government 's decision to let Lehman fail, as compared to its tacit support for Bear Stearns, which was acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) in March 2008. Lehman 's bankruptcy led to more than $46 billion of its market value being wiped out. Its collapse also served as the catalyst for the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America in an emergency deal that was also announced on September 15.

Bush on October 3rd, 2008. Some of the recipients of this bail out were and continue to be large financial institutions including Wells Fargo & Co., JP Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Morgan Stanley. In this situation the banks are not only able to continue risky behavior, but take little to no responsibility for their actions in causing such a situation. Fundamentally, if the financial institutions were bailed out once it has set a precedent for other financial institutions to view and believe that taking part in risky behavior will not affect them in the long run.

On September 10, 2008, Lehman Brothers announced the lowest decline as the shares dropped to 45%. It left the market value at $5.4 billion after the Korea Development Bank rejected to make an investment deal that could rescue Lehman. The company would seek capital from other investors in order to recover their financial situation. These efforts faltered and the situation grew more severe, even after the US government had already saved the Bear Stearns and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Though it is less likely that the US government will keep Lehman's bailout, there should be a resolution from the Federal Reserve System to bolster Lehman’s finance so as to prevent the US economic declination.

There has been a debate for years on what caused the Financial Crisis in 2008 and if there was one main cause, or a series of unfortunate events that led to the crisis. The crisis began when the market was no longer funding many financial entities. The Federal Reserve then lowered the federal funds rate from 5.25% to almost zero percent in December 2008. The Federal Government realized that this was not enough and decided to bail out Bear Stearns, which inhibited JP Morgan Chase to buy Bear Stearns. Unfortunately Bear Stearns was not the only financial entity that needed saving, Lehman Brothers needed help as well. Lehman Brothers was twice the size of Bear Stearns and the government could not bail them out. Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy on September 15, 2008. Lehman Brothers bankruptcy caused the market tensions to become disastrous. The Fed then had to bail out American International Group the day after Lehman Brothers failed (Poole, 2010). Some blame poor policy making and others blame the government. The main causes of the financial crisis are the deregulation of banks and bank corruption.

In 2008 United States of America suffered a massive financial crisis. The entire economy was affected, and a lot companies were forced into bankruptcy. AIG was on the verge of being bankrupt until the government decided to bailout the company. Now the AIG is being controlled by the government to restructure and recover assets. According to Kathy Gill about 80 percent of the AIG is controlled by the government (Gill). There are many reasons that lead to the fall of one of the largest insurance company in America, but the four that stand out the most are leverage provided by the government, the creation of Collateral Debt Obligations (CDO), the use of Credit Default Swaps (CDS), the arrogance to believe nothing

AIG, one of the biggest insurance company was always considered to be way too much important for the economy 'too big to fail ' by everyone which is why the Federal Government had to use their bazooka for the bailout. What led the near collapse of AIG is the large amount of Credit default swaps that they were dealing with. The loan that consumer had taken under mortgage backed security had defaulted. Absence of stringent regulations majorly led AIG to accumulate huge amount of assets in the form of real estate. In due course of time the real estate was termed as 'toxic ' which was the major reason that led to the start of 'economic meltdown '.

Then bundling and selling off these loans that turned into toxic assets on the market. If that wasn’t enough they took out insurance on these toxic loans, which AIG backed. When banks and brokers came to collect on their hedged bets, it was almost collapse AIG. This started a chain of near bankruptcy and the act of the bail out or TRAP.