I bought a position in BSC when it dropped to 30.00 and was assured by the CEO that the company was fine.
My pension fund manager also held as the stock dropped from his initial buy in price of 80.00.
That was Friday and the "DEAL" was announced on Sunday to bail out the company (Shareholders) at 2.00.
Shareholders had no chance since the deal was made over the weekend!
When does this become stock manipulation by the CEO of Bear Sterns?
The government only bailed out HALF of the company and let the public half crumble!
The world market's faith has been hit hard by this situation.

Kim Greenwood, Fullerton, California

Absolutely Franc

Plus fine newspapers for propagating false rumours.

Langley, London,

Todd - uptick rule is gone

Ben, Washington, DC

Sounds a bit Like an old JP Morgan trick from the 1920's... Caused quite a panic, from what I read in the history books...

Richard, chicago,

Donald Trump sounded off on Bernanke as well as the President for this terrible financial flap. I'll tell you what, I don't often agree with "The Donald", but he has some very good points:

http://socoolaz.com/article.cfm?articleID=30207

Todd Grayheck, KC, MO

Franc, the uptick rule does still exist, it's just not enforced too heavily.

JR, St. Louis, MO

This is just nonsense - Bear Stearns are just trying to cover their backs. They had huge exposure and they knew it and everyone else did too. Their hedge funds were some of the first to tank after the credit crunch began back in August so it's a little rich for their chief executive to now try and insist that everything was just fine.

Bernanke himself has admitted that the rescue of Bear Stearns had to happen as it was a matter of hours until they went to the wall. Even if it were just rumours, there is no smoke without fire in any case.

MB, Edinburgh,

Mr. Schwartz fails to mention that Bear made a lot of money serving hedge funds. One fund who was a big customer was a known bear short according to a U.S. financial newspaper. It appears Bear may have been finished off by their own hedge fund customers. Live by sword, die by the hedge fund sword. It did not help that Schwartz boss, Mr. Cayne, was often paying golf or bridge as Bear was imploding.

The SEC needs to regulate or ban hedge funds. They are just like investment pools that engaged in manipulation and then were outlawed after the 1929 crash. Also bring back Glass-Steagall and the uptick rule on shorting before we have another 1929 Crash & Depression. Finally, the boards of these banks need to do their job.

Franc, West Palm Beach, USA/FL

In the UK we not only have to put up with similar behaviour we also have the incompetence of the Bank of England and FSA to add to the problems of the small investor e.g. Northern Rock. For those who think this incompetence and behaviour is just a problem for investors look at the mortgage market and in a few months time residential property prices and jobs.

David, London,

Bear Stearns like Citibank, UBS, Countrywide, and who know how many others have been badly managed by a bunch of greedy cowboys who walked a extremely wide thin line between greed and abuse of the traditional bankers prudence. It is difficult to understand how the shareholders are getting even one cent when they are worth nothing and I for one do not want to see the US taxpayer who is already bankrupt have to support these BIG TIME LOSERS. I think the swamis of finance have been lying. I wonder why they all waited until March and after they could all get their 2007 bonuses before spilling the beans. And NO the US Government should not be acting as the Bankers Banker anymore. Face it, we are going broke and need to write off our losses and get our house in order NOW, not Tomorrow.

Kevin, Anchorage, Alaska

The hedge funds have essentially taken over the trading system, using short positions, friendly journalists (who are beholden to the hedge funds to spread the false rumors from the many inside tips they've been given ) and massive inside trading. The system is rapidly losing the confidence of the average investor (aka as chumps to the insiders), such that the US markets are no longer a "level playing field" for a reasonably savvy investor. The hedge funds can short a good companies stock to oblivion, so that they can make their blood money. And no, this isn't sour grapes, these are the observations of a former insider, who is investing individually, and is up over 30% since Jan 1. I have been doing this long enough to know how to ride the shorts, and when to run counter to the shorts. The little guys no longer stand a chance by doing the old fashioned dollar cost averaging in good companies. Their are much fairer markets to invest in now than the US.

Kevin, Campton, NH

there is no smoke without fire. they screwed up big time and they didn't have time like other banks to cover up. they should stop blaming others and admit they made a mistake.

BG, Mountain View, CA

This coming from Bear Stearns, that whiter than white Wall Street bank. This is just sour grapes because they lost in the first round of a game everyone was playing. Had they been buying credit default swaps instead of selling them and now been sitting on massive profits do you think Schwartz would be complaining or would he be leafing through a yacht catalogue?

Edward, London,