CEO Cayne a Burden to Bear

Cayne, who has been depicted in media reports as an aloof, marijuana-smoking chief executive -- who golfs excessively when he's not spanning the globe to play in bridge tournaments -- has increasingly appeared to take a public back seat in the company's affairs.

Cayne preferred to save his public comments about Bear's shabby earnings performance for a press release. "We are obviously upset with our 2007 results, particularly in light of the fact that weakness in fixed income more than offset strong and, in some areas, record-setting performance in other businesses," Cayne wrote.

A Bear spokesman declined to comment on Cayne's whereabouts. The 73-year-old Cayne put on a similar disappearing act on Aug. 3, when Bear held an emergency Friday conference call to discuss subprime and its hedge fund failures.

Is this meant to serve as stewardship?

"It's just another indication of the [Cayne's] total arrogance to shareholders," Punk Ziegel financial analyst Richard Bove said of Cayne's absence. "He treats it like a private company and he practically owns the board."

Andrew Corn, head of New York-based Clear Asset Management, told Bloomberg that the company's board of directors "needs to find leadership and more financing from the outside,'' adding that the firm will soon come under pressure to replace the CEO. "The firm's reputation is tarnished, and they're losing clients," he said.