The 40 top Bear Stearns executives listening to Alan Schwartz over lunch had spent the morning of March 13 watching the firm's stock plunge. Rumor on Wall Street had it Bear Stearns was strapped for cash.

The chief executive, surrounded by the comforting luster of wood paneling in a 12th-floor dining room, calmly assured his lieutenants that Bear Stearns would weather the storm.