Singapore To The Rescue

Perhaps the new partners will remind our Jolly Bankers of the virtues of fiscal restraint and responsible investing. But not before one last wallow at the trough. AP (12.21.07):

"Then on Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Merrill Lynch & Co., facing hefty writedowns due to losing bets on subprime mortgages, may get a capital infusion of as much as $5 billion from Singapore state-owned investment agency Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd.

Temasek is a fund that in late July said it would buy a 1.77 percent stake in Barclays for $2 billion.

Stock Futures Up After Merrill Report

"Sovereign wealth funds have been providing troubled U.S. and European banks with much-needed cash. In recent weeks, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority bought a Citigroup stake for $7.5 billion; the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. invested $9.75 billion in UBS AG; and China Investment Corp. infused Morgan Stanley with $5 billion."

After already coughing up $3.2 billion to try to save one of its pieces of the shitpile, Bear Stearns may be looking for some outside cash pretty soon. In fact, it's been such a catastrophe that Big Jim, who may be paying more attention these days, sez there won't be any bonuses for the top dogs.

What you say? The first time in its history Bear's finished a year with a loss, and no bonuses? Absolutely outrageous, that is.