Persian Horde Finishes off Bear

Historic battles are taking place this morning; as Rich Marin said in June, there is nothing like a good dog fight trying to defend Sparta against the Persians hordes of Wall Street.

The lack of leadership at Bear has been remarkable, the rank and file were betrayed. Nobody was willing to take on Jimmy Cayne at the firm. Warren Spector certainly deserved some of the blame for letting the credit hedge funds lever up, but he probably would have been a better choice to handle the emerging crisis than Cayne.

Wall Street does not have a monopoly on incompetent managers however:

On a recent 60 Minutes, Icahn complained to Lesley Stahl about the incompetence of American management. "I see our country going off a cliff, and I feel bad about it."

Icahn is moping all the way to the bank. The market's recognition of management failures gives him the opportunities to acquire companies on the cheap. But those of us who aren't billionaire corporate raiders—which is to say pretty much all of us—must manage through this management crisis on our own. Slate

There are many bad actors on Wall Street, but Cayne was the worst of the (back) lot.



The Rise of American Incompetence
Slate

You know who the losers are, but soon it will be time to try to figure out who the winners might be. There will be one, right?

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