Posted 8:07 AM by Gene

If Bear Stearns were located in, say, Lincoln, Nebraska, or Albuquerque, New Mexico, it would be a blip, then disappear. Unfortunately for the rest of the country it is situated in the center of the center of the universe, one of three American cities equipped with a megaphone, and people in the financial scam are the most knee-jerk conformist types this side of Hollywood, academe and the luxury news suites, who can turn every molehill into a mountain, every slight dip into a depression. Yes, New York lost most of its corporate HQ thanks to race prejudice and deindustrialization, but it still has far too many self-important types who spend the day in front of the mirror looking for crow's feet, and not finding any -- and then they wake up one fine morning and behold Dorian Gray, and insist the whole world looks like them.