While JP Morgan (with help from the Fed) was able to acquire Bear Sterns for $270 million, the market treated this acquisition a little bit differently. With the rest of the financial sector reeling today, investors have increased the value of JP Morgan Chase by 12% (and climbing in after hours trading). To put this in context, 12% of the market cap of JP Morgan is the equivalent of about $16.5 billion, or over 60 times the amount of money paid for Bear Sterns.

What does this say about the market in general when the largest financial institutions out there see a corporation with immense assets being sold for bargain basement prices, and only one party intervenes to pick it up? All signs point to an immense/severe worry about our economic prospects ahead.