We thought we'd share with you some of the comments we received about the 'Open Letter' from a Bear Stearns staffer which we published Tuesday.

1. 'What an excellent, open-minded and well-balanced letter. It was very enlightening and humbling to read such honest and mature opinions expressed in the light of a situation that clearly proved to be very difficult for a number of people. The writer eluded to a strong team ethic and a good mix of people - well, I think we have that at JPMorgan too. As an organisation, I'm sure that we can learn from some of the things that make up Bear's culture, especially that 'pluckiness' which gave the firm its strong and unique brand'.

2. 'I wish I knew who wrote that letter. It really touched me. Every single word the author wrote is true. I left Bear 4 years or so ago, having spent over 11 years working at the firm. It was truly an amazing place. This whole situation saddens me deeply'.

3. 'This letter is right on the mark. Of our 12 professionals, 7 here, including me, were long time Bear people. Bear's entrepreneurial culture spawned many well known hedge funds and LBO shops. To many of us, the demise of the firm is like the death of a close relative'.

4. 'There is no room for sentiment in investment banking'.

5. 'Get over it. Failure is part of life'.

6. 'You spend your life playing the game, and finally lose big time - then you suddenly get perspective. Do me a favour!'.

7. 'Financial mathematics gone mad. Risk managers assured that all the models which quantified risk were stress-tested, back-tested, simulation-tested, and that the risk relative to the rich return of subprime produced a superior ratio. Well, they were wrong - as some of us who teach at business school have long-predicted. Models don't consider liquidity dry-up; as we know from Long Term Capital Management, models do not (yet) handle jumps in cash prices. It just goes to show - you can't trade using calculus'.

8. 'What people are not understanding is that the firm didn't fail - Wall Street failed us. We were poised for a great quarter and a year of recovery from the MBS mess. Persistent rumours brought our firm down'.

9. The sentiments expressed in the 'Open Letter' should be familiar to anyone who left JPMorgan after the Chase 'merger''.

10. 'Wall Street and the community as a whole will lose out with the demise of Bear Stearns. The firm had a philanthropic side with community involvement (Big Brothers & Sisters, Habitat for Humanity, etc). And 5% of each Senior Managing Director's income went to a charity of their chosing'.

Open Letter From A Bear Stearns Staffer

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