Quote of the day

From Felix Salmon:

I'm similarly skeptical about the idea that the Fed is "propping up" Bear Stearns. For a couple of months until it can be deleveraged and subsumed into JP Morgan, perhaps. But that's a world away from allowing banks to operate for years while marking distressed assets on their balance sheets at par, which is what happened in Japan. The Fed was happy leaving the carcass of Bear Stearns to the wolves at 270 Park: this was anything but a "propping up" operation.