[wideawake]

I would also point out that major French bank Societe Generale had lost almost $8B in one day on bad trades a few weeks before the lunch.

Bank liquidity was uppermost on everyone's minds, since SocGen had almost failed - which would have been extremely bad news for everyone at that table.

Additionally, Bear Stearns had had a meltdown in one of its internal hedge funds a few months before - their stock had almost halved in the months preceding the meeting - so the whole market was aware that Bear was in trouble.

Also, Alan Schwartz was conducting a telephone conference on Bear Stearns financial condition that day and meeting with investors - so Bear would have been a natural topic of conversation. Well before the meeting the CDS spread on Bear debt had risen from 400 to 640.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Thanks for adding perspective.