Common Sense

James Stewart usually limits his column in the Wall Street Journal to investment opinion and advice. Yesterday, he went a little farther afield and made some good points about the Bear Stearns situation. You may think it surprising for a Journal columnist to advocate that any gains made in this case should accrue to the taxpayer and, to a lesser degree, to JP Morgan. But that's what Stewart says. He also has the courage to castigate James Cayne, former head of Bear Stearns, who was not fiddling while Bear was going down the tubes. Cayne was playing bridge or golf or buying property. On Tuesday he was selling his shares in Bear for a profit of $60,000,000 and more.