Bear Stearns: careless talk costs lives

Bear Stearns employees have seen the 80 year old bank they dedicated themselves to building up, and of which they owned a big share, destroyed by a few unsubstantiated rumours. In a time of fear, rumours become facts. What Bear’s death shows is the rapacious danger of financial markets — no sense of either mercy, solidarity or collective responsibility will restrain players from talk that can kill.