that being the bear stearns former ceo, ann sherman, jimmy cayne. over the last two and a half hours, the public has probably heard more from jimmy cayne in that short time frame than they did in the 15 years he was running bear stearns. now, cayne, during the hearing, has deflected a number of questions about bear's final days, saying as nonexecutive chairman, he wasn't involved in day-to-day operations at that time. he did say he was deeply shocked the 85-year-old firm went under, though he saw little problem with the business model. one of high leverage, overreliance on its mortgage business and overreliance on short-term funding. >> that was the business. that was really industry practice. in retrospect, in hindsight, i would say the leverage was too high. asked what he would have done differently, he said he didn't have an answer, but echoing comments by other bear executives sea foreseeing the crash in housing that sparked the financial crisis was impossible. >> very few people, including people who were right in the middle of it, as mr. molan

shamed former bear stearns ceo jimmy cayne as well as schwartz. mary thompson joins us with the latest from capitol hill. hi, mary. >> cayne's first public appearance since his firm collapsed. in his prepared testimony he will tell the scic that it was due to overwhelming market forces and no reasonable steps say selling the firm could have prevented its collapse. the concerns about the week leading up to its demise were unfounded the market's loss of confidence was unjustified and irrational. cayne says the lost of confidence became a self-fulfilling prophecy when it was high by economic standards. knowing he wasn't involved at the day-to-day operations of the firm at the time, he does believe bear stearns took all the right steps but, in hindsig hindsight, this was not enough. bear was sold to jm morgan in 2008, as well as that loss of confidence by clients and customers. the firm was sold. in his testimony, cayne's successor schwartz echoed the sentiment saying it triggers a run on the bank and a complaint we heard from other bear executives tha

jimmy cayne the former ceo just finished his remarks. we will monitor them and bring you the headlines as news warrants. tyler? >> all right, thanks very much, sue. welcome back to "power lunch" our next guest has a hand in diverse economies including banking, real estate, autos, hotel, travel, the whole thing. here with me exclusively from the business council is robert johnson. mr. johnson, welcome back. good to have you. >> tyler, thank you very much. >> we'll talk about the business council survey which was just out, but you have heard over the past 36 hours from the president and the chairman of the federal reserve and the head of the omb and the treasury secretary, what is your sense of where they see the country right now economically? >> well, they both see, all of the above see the economy as growing and becoming very positive in all the indicators. the same thing is shared by members of the business council. they see jobs beginning to increase, they see inflation staying down and interest rates are down and the overall feeling

on the list, jimmy cayne.take you inside the hearing, next. >>> and how can you protect your money from the house of cards going down in europe? first it was here, now it's there. we've shown you some of the footage from athens. and we will be back with that trade coming up. the market, by the way, with a significant comeback here in the u.s., and i want to emphasize that. you're only down 22 points now, almost the best level of the session after an initial decline of about 100. we'll be right back. so i was the guy who was never going to have the heart attack. i thought i was invincible. i'm on an aspirin regimen now because i never want to feel that helplessness again. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. talk to your doctor, and take care of what you have to take care of. about all the discounts boswe're offering. i've got. i some catchphrases that'llideas make these savings even more memorable. gecko: all right... gecko: good driver discounts. now that's th

the five former bear stearns executives set to testify, the company's former chairman and ceo, jimmy cayne>> and let's take a look at the day on wall street as we say good night. the market under pressure for much of the day today. in fact, ending near the lows of the afternoon. on worries about the debt in greece and the ripple effects throughout the euro zone. the dow jones industrial average down 2%. 225 points lower at 10,926. volume heavy, as was volatility higher. 1 1/2 billion shares traded here at the big board. nasdaq gave up 75 points, nearly 3%, and that wasn't even the low of the day. 2424 is where the nasdaq settles out. and the s&p 500 tonight down 2%. you had commodities also weaker across the board. and a number of financials and technology leading the decline to 1173 on the standard & poor's. thanks so much for being with us tonight on "closing bell." i'll see you manana. "fast money's" up next. good night. >>> live from the nasdaq marketsite, this is "fast money." fear spreading as the euro zone region implodes. is this the time get greedy and buy into the fear? how far w

i would say jimmy cayne, if not mr. schwartz, suspected that there was some potential, nefarious collusion on the part of people to do a big bear raid, if you will, on bear stearns. we had a discussion of that, and it turns out that you testified regarding that subject. i wondered if you might comment on what the sec did to look into that. so far, it appears that it does not been resolved. >> as i mentioned, we had many investigations, well over 50 of them, but focused on these related areas. one of the areas that was of great significance was market manipulation. when i was chairman, we set the record for the highest number of actions. it was a big area of focus. one action that we brought involves the intentional spreading of false rumors. in the market prices, given the scale of it, obviously, that is an environment that is ripe for that kind of fraud and manipulation. to intentionally spread a false rumor, that is a climate where it might be believed. investigating as many as humanly possible in real time was a very

jimmy cane, former chairman and ceo of bear stearns. he is one of five former executives at the first investment bank to fail during the crisis testifying before the fcic today. in their testimonies, both cayne, allen schwartz, blame unfounded rumors for bear's collapse in march of 2008 and that leading up to the frenzied week before it was sold, bear was well capitalized and had adequate liquidity. the hearing to be the bridge plane former bond salesman's first public appearance since the firm he worked for for almost 40 years and ran for 15 was saved through a fire sale by jpmorgan. that deal brokered by the federal reserve and treasury had jpmorgan paying $1.4 billion for the firm after upping its initial from $2 a share to $10 a share. the problems of the smallest of wall street's investment banks foreshadowing those that would later take down lehman brothers and put merrill lynch into the arms of bank of america. leading to a loss of confidence among investors and clients. canne nonexecutive chairman at the time was in detroit playing bridge. he told "fortune" later that year, i didn't stop it and i didn't rein in leverage. he will testify today. the investment banker and 32-year bear v