There’s always something to howl about.

JP Morgan Ups Bid For Bear Stearns

Have we reached the bottom of the credit crisis? Not likely but we are definitely going through, what Barry Johnson calls, price discovery.

From The New York Times via Yahoo News:

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) is in talks to increase its offer for Bear Stearns CosBear Stearns, (BSC.N) to $10 per share in an effort to pacify angry shareholders of Bear Stearns, the New York Times reported in its online edition.

“The Fed, which must approve any new deal, was balking at the new offer price on Sunday night after several days of frantic, secret negotiations,” the newspaper reported, citing people involved in the negotiations.

I said, earlier this week, that this deal may very well QUANTIFY the bottom:

Here’s the part we’re all forgetting. 30% of the Bear Stearns stock is owned by the employees and Joe Lewis own another 10%. Both these “stakeholders” are a tad more than pissed at the weekend looting that happened when the power went out at Bear. Thursday, the stated book value was some $80. The value of their headquarters’ building is eight bucks a share. Manhattan real estate was supposed to be holding up pretty well in this real estate decline. I “get” lowball offers but 20 cents on the dollar for the building and firm that comes with it?

I reported that this was an asset play for JP Morgan, last night; they certainly assume some risk with Bear’s mortgage-laden portfolio. I thought the offer was scary, not derisory when I saw it. A pit formed, in my stomach, when I thought that valuations were THAT low. If Bear Stearns, a respected securities form could be devalued THAT much by mortgages, what would happen to the economy?

Hunker down, folks! Hunker down for a heavyweight fight between Joe Lewis and Jamie Dimon. The currency trader versus the bean counter. The cowboy versus the storekeeper. If we’re fighting about WHERE the bottom is , today, the bottom might be just around the corner.

In my annual market report, I said:

Today, we can feel the bottom amidst the muddy waters. Tomorrow, we’ll be able to see it as those waters clear. Next year, we may very well have touched bottom and will be floating towards the surface; we just won’t know it until we’ve come up for air.

I’m not sayin’ it’s over, I’m just saying that the waters are getting less muddied.