Bear Stearns and MBS Hedge Funds: What are the real risks today?

Safe Haven | Bear Stearns and MBS Hedge Funds: What are the real risks today?: "'...What people don't fully appreciate is the extent to which our financial system has geared up over the last twenty years to finance the worldwide residential housing boom...'

MOST SIGNIFICANT MARKET EVENTS cause an immediate and substantial price reaction, which makes it hard to profit from them. But sometimes there's a sort of slumber, when the market gazes sleepily about itself not quite sure what to do.

We may be experiencing one of them now.

This week a major American investment bank called Bear Stearns was reported as having some serious trouble with a couple of hedge funds. It is difficult to be clear exactly what is going on, because this story involves lots of people and banks who have a vested interest in not being very open. I have been trying to find out the details."

Hedge Funds versus Bear Stearns

NEW YORK, June 7 (Reuters) - Hedge fund managers are accusing Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC.N: Quote, Profile , Research) of trying to manipulate the market in securities based on subprime mortgages, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition.

The confrontation provides a rare look into the complex trading in the mammoth U.S. mortgage market, which played a critical role in financing the housing boom, and the complicated relationships between hedge funds and investment banks, the paper said.

Hedge funds that had sold short such securities made profits when an index tied to a basket of subprime bonds was falling. But the index has recovered in recent weeks, leading to howls of protest from hedge funds, according to the report.

The chief critic, John Paulson of Paulson & Co., a $12 billion fund, says Bear Stearns wanted to prop up faltering mortgages-backed securities by purchasing individual mortgages that were rapidly losing value to avoid doling out billions in swap payments, the Journal reported.

Bear Stearns is one of Wall Street's largest players in the market for credit default swaps. By selling swaps, Bear bet the subprime home loan market would improve or at least turn out to be healthier than expected.

Neither Bear Stearns not Paulson & Co. immediately returned calls seeking comment. The head of Bear's mortgage business denied the allegations, according to the report.

A downturn in the U.S. housing market this year has led to rising defaults in the subprime mortgage market, which caters to borrowers with weak credit histories. More than two dozen subprime lenders have collapsed, while others have tightened their lending standards