Bonds

Bear Stearns Makes $1 Billion Bet on Continued Subprime Woes 

Bear Stearns, bitten badly by the housing crash, is short more than $1 billion on subprime mortgage securities — a big bet by the investment bank that the woes that have driven a historic collapse in the mortgage market are likely to continue. Bloomberg reported that Bear CFO Sam Molinaro said Friday that the New York firm’s “short” positions have jumped from $600 million at the end of November as the company has trimmed its positions in CDOs and underlying RMBS bonds. From the report: