March Madness

Fifteen years ago, in March 2008, a storied name in US banking failed. The government-backed sale of Bear Sterns to rival JP Morgan was seen at the time as putting a floor under the growing credit crunch and markets rallied. As we now know, the orderly unwinding of Bear Sterns would be followed six months later by the chaotic collapse of Lehman Brothers and a scary new phase of the Global Financial Crisis.