How many crises' can one man do ?

Recall that in 1998, meltdown of a single hedge fund - LTCM - had repercussions that spreaded way further then one would think, affecting US and global economy and changing climate in sovereign borrowing and general credit markets for years to come. Back then, one man and one firm refused to participate in the bailout - without which, some say, US economy and probably world economy as well would've been in such deep a crisis that we'd still be crawling out of it. The man was James Cayne and the firm was Bear, Stern & Co.

Arrogant as ever, Bear Stern was at the edge of reputable Wall Street entities, constantly getting into something fishy yet managing to get out of it. Mr. Cayne chose the easy way to run the shop, simply loading up on the highest yielding asset available, and spending rest of his time playing golf. Alas, the mighty have fallen and now it's him and his firm seeking bailout.

Last week he was worth $900m. Supposedly, tomorrow he'll be worth only a fifth of that. They will plead poverty, and they will tell you how much losses he personally took and how much stock of Bear Stern he owned.

Don't believe a word of this. I have little doubt that Mr. Cayne's positions were so well tuned and so well hedged that come tomorrow, Mr. Cayne and his friends booked profits many, many times larger then the market re-cap of the dwarf bear ...