Bear Stearns: counting the pennies

What’s a good way to make $5 through highly leveraged speculative investments? Start with $100. That, at least, has been the experience of the investors who put $1,6bn in two Bear Stearns subprime mortgage funds. According to reports, the US broker says the High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Fund has lost 91% of its principal value, while the smaller Enhanced Leverage Fund has been wiped out altogether. Things are bad in the subprime world, but not that bad. Even the most pessimistic obser...