Bear Stearns has been the subject of takeover speculation for many months.

FORBES: Cayne Quits As Bear Stearns CEO

Last week, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox told a Senate panel that the agency was not ignoring speculation that traders colluded to bring down Bear Stearns in a swift short-selling raid in mid-March.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Bernanke gets credit for not strangling the economic recovery in its cradle, but his sub zero money market rates bear sizable responsibility for the weak dollar, commodity speculation and the inherent inflationary impact all this entails.

FORBES: Bernanke's Tea Leaves Read Unintended Consequences

Last week, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox told a Senate panel that the agency was not ignoring speculation that traders colluded to bring down Bear Stearns (nyse: BSC - news - people ) in a swift short-selling raid in mid-March.

FORBES: Get Shorty

Margin debt, a seldom-referenced indicator of confidence and speculation has contracted on a yearly percentage change as much as in the bear markets of '74, '82, '87 and '01.

FORBES: Manic Depression To Normalization

Douglas Brunt, first time novelist, is a persuasive storyteller, and one story that was important to the collapse of our speculation and deception-ridden economy was failed bailout and ultimate demise of Bear Stearns in 2008.

FORBES: Book Review: Douglas Brunt's "The Ghosts of Manhattan"