Fiddling while The Bear Burns

August 8, 2007 |

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I can’t take it anymore!  I had every intention of not commenting about the Bear Stearns impolosion caused by their hedge funds, but James Cayne is a Wall Street Nero fiddling while his firm (Rome) burns to the ground!  And rather than be a man and take responsibility for this debacle, he offers up one of his own, Warren Spector,  for public ridicule and feeds him to the mob in the arena.   The Wall Street Journal article the other day paints the picture with wonderful, rich dark tones …

On Wednesday James Cayne, the 73-year-old chief executive of Bear Stearns Cos., summoned his top lieutenant to his smoky, dimly lit office in midtown Manhattan.

The big securities firm Mr. Cayne had led as CEO for 14 years was under attack. Two of its mortgage-related hedge funds had blown up, costing investors more than $1 billion, and its stock was under siege, down 27% this year alone. The way Mr. Cayne saw it, Warren Spector, Bear Stearns’s co-president and the person most often cited as his likely successor, deserved some of the blame.

Really? I can almost smell the stale cigar smoke, the whiff of which brings back the hazy memory of better times .  But good times these are not and its time for a scape goat.  Typical piss-poor management at it again.  Now, granted, Spector is a capital jackass as well.  Who the hell indulges himself to a bridge tournament while his business is in crisis?  Simple, an out of touch plutocrat.  Cayne deserves to be fired — and none too soon.  My prediction — it’ll happen within another two weeks. 

What do you think??

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