Greenberg: still enjoying the game
As Wall Street consolidates, and banking personalities get swallowed up in corporate structures and bureaucracy, one bank is defying the trend. The 75-year-old investment bank Bear Stearns is a throwback to an earlier age of feisty bankers who have the confidence to be idiosyncratic, the toughness to speak their minds, and humility to admit their mistakes. They also have a nose for cash and a desire to fill their boots with money like few of their peers. Typifying this old-fashioned style are 71-year-old Wall Street legend Alan "Ace" Greenberg, Bear Stearns chairman, and his successor as chief executive officer, 65-year-old Jimmy Cayne. Cayne expresses the Bear Stearns breed of confidence like this: "We think we're in a war, we think we're in a fight for our daily existence. We think everything is important."
Playing with fire
In late 1998, Bear Stearns went to war with a difference when it took on the consortium of investors formed to rescue Long-Term Capital Management. LTCM was one of Bear Stearns' top 10 clearing accounts when the hedge fund ran into trouble. The 14-strong consortium of investors in LTCM pulled in Cayne to ask what he knew about the firm's state.