Bear Stearns once commended as one of the greatest Investment Firms on Wall Street will soon be absorbed by JPMorgan Chase. A price agreement has been reached and shares of Bear will be swapped for shares of JPMorgan. Shares of Bear Stearns traded for as high as $163 now trades for $10 a share. Only $6 more than when it went public 23 years ago. Getting caught up in the subprime mortgage madness they would soon come undone. In less than a year Bear Stearns would be forced to sell itself or file chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Ticker Symbol: BSC
Company Key Dates:
1923: The original company is founded by Joseph Bear, Robert Stearns, and Harold Mayer as an equity trading house.
1933: Bear Stearns opens its first regional office in Chicago, and Salim L. “Cy” Lewis–future chairman–is hired to direct Bear Stearns’s new institutional bond trading department.
1955: Bear Stearns opens its first international office in Amsterdam.
1965: Bear Stearns begins expanding retail operations in the United States and, over the next eight years, opens offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, and Boston.
1978: Alan “Ace” Greenberg succeeds Lewis as chairman.
1985: Bear Stearns forms a holding company called Bear Stearns Companies, Inc., goes public, and reorganizes from a brokerage house into a full-service investment firm.
1992: Company earnings double to over $295 million for best year in Bear Stearns’s history to date.
1993: James E. Cayne succeeds Alan Greenberg as CEO; Greenberg stays on as chairman.
1999: Bear Stearns agrees to pay $42 million to settle civil and criminal fraud charges in connection with its role as clearing broker for A.R. Baron.
2001: James E. Cayne succeeds Alan Greenberg as chairman.
2001: Bear Stearns completes construction of its world headquarters at 383 Madison Ave, New York, NY.
2003: Bear Stearns along with 9 other of the worlds top investment firms are forced to pay penelaties related to using their in house R&D release false or inflated claims to move stock prices in a favorable manor for the firm.
2006: The company had total capital of approximately $66.7 billion and total assets of $350.4 billion.
2007: Around June 2007 Bear Stearns pumps 1.6 Billion of capital in its Enhanced Leverage Fund and High-Grade Fund to keep them from closing.
2008: Bear Stearns agrees to be bought by JPMorgan Chase for $10 per share, underwritten by $29 billion in special financing from the Fed.

Company History:
Bear Stearns Companies, Inc., the holding company that owns Bear, Stearns & Company, Inc., was created on October 29, 1985, as the successor to Bear Stearns & Company and Subsidiaries, a partnership organized in 1957. The partnership, in turn, was the successor to a company founded in 1923 by Joseph Bear, Robert Stearns, and Harold Mayer as an equity-trading house. Headquartered in New York, Bear Stearns today is a full service brokerage and investment banking firm focused on three core areas: capital markets, wealth management, and global clearing services. The company maintains offices in major cities all over the globe.
Read more…

Congress Sends $168 Billion Economic Stimulus to Bush (Update2)
By Alison Fitzgerald and Brian Faler

 Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Congress passed and sent to President George W. Bush a $168 billion economic stimulus package that he said is needed to help boost the slowing economy.

The legislation would send tax rebate checks to more than 111 million households, probably beginning in May. Lawmakers yesterday altered an earlier plan by making 20 million senior citizens and 250,000 disabled veterans eligible for the rebates. Bush said he will sign the measure.

“I want to thank the members for passing a good piece of legislation, which I will sign into law next week,” Bush said today in a speech to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

In addition to the rebates and incentives for businesses to invest in new equipment, the measure increases the size of mortgage loans that government-chartered mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can buy.

Bloomberg.Com – Click for Complete Story

Google: Microsoft Deal Bad for Internet
Sunday February 3, 9:24 pm ET
By Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer 
Google Rips Microsoft’s Proposed Takeover of Yahoo, Saying It Would Stifle Internet Innovation

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google Inc. raised the specter of Microsoft Corp. using its proposed $42 billion acquisition of Yahoo Inc. to gain illegal control over the Internet, underscoring the online search leader’s queasiness about its two biggest rivals teaming up.
 
The critical remarks, posted online Sunday by Google’s top lawyer, represented the Mountain View-based company’s first public reaction to Microsoft’s unsolicited bid for Yahoo since the offer was announced Friday.“Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo raises troubling questions,” David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, wrote. “This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It’s about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.”

Finance.Yahoo.Com – Click for Complete Story

Friday February 1, 8:39 am ET
By Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer 
Microsoft Makes Unexpected $44.6B Offer for Internet Icon Yahoo

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.’s dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets.

The surprise offer of $31 per share, made late Thursday and announced Friday, comes with Sunnyvale-based Yahoo in a vulnerable position.

In a statement Friday, Yahoo said it will “carefully and promptly” study Microsoft’s bid. With its profits steadily sliding, Yahoo’s stock slipped to a four-year low earlier this week and a new management team has been trying to steer a turnaround but sees more turbulence through 2008.

Finance.Yahoo.Com – Click for Complete Story

Finance committee gives nod to stimulus measures. Proposals to give tax rebates to seniors and aid the unemployed gain support. Next step: Full Senate vote.

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer
January 30 2008: 6:36 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday approved a proposal intended to curb a further slowdown in the economy. The proposal, which differs from a bill overwhelmingly approved Tuesday by the House, could be introduced as a bill and voted on by the full Senate as early as Thursday. Lawmakers are aiming to send final legislation to President Bush by Feb. 15.

The committee meeting took place the same day that the government issued a report that economic growth in the last quarter of 2007 was weaker than expected and the Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate another 50 basis points following its emergency move last week that lowered the federal funds rate by 75 points.

 CNN.Money.Com – Click for Complete Story

**Updated to include elderly and disabled veteran rebates**
Assuming democrats don’t mess things up, chances are this is how its going to break down:

Under the agreement announced by the White House, individual taxpayers who earned enough to pay federal taxes would get up to $600 in rebates, working couples $1,200 and those with children an additional $300 per child.

The Bill sent to President Bush would give $300 tax-rebate checks to those whose Social Security benefits, veterans’ disability payments and earned income totaled a minimum of $3,000 last year.

Adjusted Gross Income is more than $3,000 but owed little to no taxes would get $300 or $600 for couple + $300 per child

Adjusted Gross Income is less than  $75,000 , rebate would be equal to the taxes paid in 2007 up to $600 + $300 per child

Adjusted Gross Income for couples less than $150,000 , rebate would be equal to the taxes paid in 2007 up to $1,200 + $300 per child

 For people who exceed these limits the rebate is reduced by 5% for every $1 over the limit. Example, if you made $85,000 you would be $10,000 over so $10,000 x .05 ( 5% ) = $500. $600 – $500 = $100, which would be your rebate. The plan would allow for people not eligible based on 2007 income to qualify again in 2009 based on their 2008 taxes. The government hopes to start sending rebates in mid-may and complete payments in 10 weeks.

 Finance.Yahoo.Com – Click for Complete Story

AP
French Bank Trader Bet Tens of Billions
Friday January 25, 4:24 pm ET
By Angela Charlton, Associated Press Writer

French Bank Trader Was Dealing in Tens of Billions of Euros

PARIS (AP) — French bank Societe Generale said Friday a rogue trader who cost it more than $7 billion by making bad stock market bets had been gambling on a much larger scale — tens of billions of dollars of the bank’s money.

Photo by AP

As the depth of the risk to the bank became clearer, small shareholders questioned controls at Societe Generale and other leading banks, and France’s prime minister joined skeptics wondering whether a lone trader could have been fully responsible for such major damage.

The bank, France’s second-largest, apologized to shareholders in full-page newspaper ads after announcing the fraud, apparently the biggest ever carried out by one person. The news Thursday rattled an already jittery banking sector.

Finance.Yahoo.Com – Click Here for Complete Story

The AP posted on Thu, Jun. 14, 2007

BERN, Switzerland – The Swiss National Bank said Thursday it will sell 276 US tons of gold reserves over the next two years.

The sale would fetch about $5.2 billion (euro3.9 billion) at current prices.

The proceeds will be used to increase Switzerland’s foreign currency reserves, national bank directorate member Thomas Jordan told reporters.

The share of gold in Switzerland’s currency reserves has risen to 42 percent from 33 percent since mid-2005 due to the increase in gold prices. Jordan said the sale would return the share of gold in the currency reserves to their previous level.

The sale will occur at regular intervals over period of two years to minimize the impact on the gold market. Once completed, the national bank will hold 1,040 metric tons (1,146 US tons) of gold.

Between 2000 and 2005 Switzerland sold 1,300 metric tons (1,433 US tons) of surplus gold reserves. The proceeds , about 21 billion Swiss francs , were distributed between the federal government and the country’s 26 cantons (states), who used the money to pay off debts.

Originally posted at philly.com