Naked Capitalism details the multiple reasons for the collapse, the precipitating event being rumors of financial problems at Bear caused massive withdrawals of cash by hedge funds and other institutions.

Did others deliberately push Bear and that Carlyle hedge fund off a cliff?

An awful conspiracy theory presents itself: were Bear’s creditors trying to deliberately hasten its demise (a la Carlyle) before Bear could take advantage of the TSLF [the Fed $200bn of liquidity that starts on the 27th], so they could grab Bear’s collateral and turn it into desperately needed liquidity for themselves?

AC DC - Dog Eat Dog

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Mac Uaid was there and took the photo. Lenin’s Tomb has photos too.

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Hustler has offered $1 million, as has a movie studio. Her music, which was already on the net, has been downloaded 300,000 times, garnering $200,000+ in sales. My favorite, a possible “Client Number 9″ perfume deal.

I’m guessing the other call girls who serviced Spitzer are wishing they’d been the ones to get caught up in the investigation.

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“We can once again actually ’sail’ with cargo ships, thus opening a new chapter in the history of commercial shipping.”

The innovative Skysail on a cargo ship provided 20% of the propulsion, thus saving fuel and cutting emissions. It’s funded as a pilot project by the EU.

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They’d rather own PCs and iPods rather than one of those last century motorized pollution-spewing transportation devices.

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Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns received emergency 28 day funding today from JP Morgan and the NY Fed. BSC cratered on the news and closed at 30, down 27 points, a whopping 47% drop in just one day.

Reports are circulating that major banks have issued orders for no dealings with Bear Stearns, and the bank is probably dead as a going concern.

Lehman Brothers is also reported to be in trouble, although Bear certainly takes the prize for mismanagement and for getting involved in toxic waste “investments.”

Disclosure: I’ve been buying puts (you make money if the stock price falls) on BSC on and off for the past several months and thus have watched the stock carefully. In the past, just when you thought it was a goner, it would stage a furious sustained rally, sometimes for several weeks in a row. However, based on the past few weeks, and especially today, it now appears BSC is circling the drain.

You can still put puts on BSC. However, because the company is at such risk, the options are extremely expensive, and given its weakened state, another company could buy them, driving the stock price up. So, maybe I’l buy more puts, maybe not. (I prefer to buy puts on companies that are starting to weaken, not ones that have already collapsed.)

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