The low price on Bear-Stearns buyout was supposed to punish investors who chose Bear Stearns stock because of the high returns associated with the high risk. The punishment was supposed to offset the $30 billion dollars of risk backing the sale of BS to JP Morgan. It was also supposed to offset the Fed offering it's discount loans for other risky lender investors.
It was a sign.
If you favor risky and predatory lending by investing in it, you will lose when it goes bust.
Now, citing the poor employees (of which the real victims could have been helped another way) JPMorgan is raising the price of the purchase by a factor of 5.
Rich people who supported the Bear Stearns mindset of stealing whatever they could from whomever they could can now rejoice.
The Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush smackdown of the American middle class continues.
Read JPMorgan in Negotiations to Raise Bear Stearns Bid in the very Wall Street friendly New York Times.