"Don't y'all listen to that crazy Wall Street Journal," Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne is running around saying all day. Actually: "Don't be distracted by the noise," is what he said. Then he said the paper was full of lies, which is unlikely! Bear Stearns shares were down 4% over the course of the day, after the WSJ ran a monster story saying, among other things, that Cayne was MIA for ten days this summer—without so much as a cellphone—while two of the company's funds were collapsing. Last year, Cayne took home $34 million, and also he smokes a lot of pot for a 73-year-old, which is really excellent. We bet it is some good stuff too. He is sort of our hero, particularly as we're not shareholders!

Bear CEO's Handling Of Crisis Raises Issues [WSJ]