The Fall of Bear Stearns

One of the biggest banks in America evaporated in just seven days. Bear Stearns was

an eighty-five-year-old Wall Street giant, but they were secretly gambling with insane leverage.

For every dollar they actually owned, they borrowed thirty-six more to bet on risky subprime mortgages.

When the housing market cracked, those bets turned toxic. Regulators were

asleep at the wheel, and clients panicked, pulling out eighteen billion dollars in cash in a single

week. The government forced a fire sale to JPMorgan for ten bucks a share,

proving that on Wall Street, you are only a genius until you are broke.