Bear went over the mountain -- will we?

It may be dangerous when I walk outside in NYC tomorrow, if people start throwing themselves out of windows. NYT reports tonight: "Bear Stearns, pushed to the brink of bankruptcy by what amounted to a run on the bank, agreed late Sunday to sell itself to JP Morgan Chase for a mere $2 a share, narrowly averting a collapse that threatened to cascade through the financial system. The price represents a startling 93 percent discount to Bear Stearns’ closing stock price on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. Bankers and policy makers raced to complete the deal before financial markets in Asia opened on Monday, as fears grew that the financial panic could spread if Bear Stearns failed to find a buyer."

Alan Greenspan in the Financial Times sees the worst, literally: "The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war."

NOTE: My new book on Iraq and the media, "So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq," can be ordered via the left rail on this page. "Read this book -- twice," blurbs Bill Moyers. It is the first five-year history of the war and features a preface by Bruce Springsteen and foreword by famed war reporter Joe Galloway.