Bear’s Cayne holds cards close to vest

In a classic fiddling-while-Rome-burns story, the Wall Street Journal traced the activities of James Cayne, the CEO of Bear Stearns Cos. this summer.

While units of Bear Stearns, an investment and banking powerhouse, were collapsing because of the credit crisis in the subprime mortgage market, Cayne was out of reach for hours at a time, the Journal reported Thursday.

Not surprisingly — he’s a CEO after all — Cayne was incommunicado at times on the golf course, the paper said.

But at other times he was, hold on to your hats, playing bridge.

(He might also have been puffing on a joint, the Journal implies, but that’s a whole other issue.)

Cayne shot back at the Journal, saying in a memo to employees that the article “alleges I engaged in inappropriate conduct outside the firm. As I stated in the story, this is absolutely untrue.”

Regardless, he is an avid bridge player, though his devotion to the demanding card game may sound anachronistic in an age when the entire B list of celebrities has turned to poker.

But other moguls are drawn to bridge, as well.

Bill Gates, the richest man in America, according to Forbes magazine, loves bridge, as does Warren Buffett, the second richest man.

But Cayne, who didn’t make the list of America’s 400 richest people this year but was 384th in 2005 with a net worth of $900 million, is a better bridge player, Forbes reports.

He’s ranked 611th the world and has been a top bridge player in the U.S. for years.

For sure, bridge opened doors for Cayne at Bear Stearns.

Alan “Ace” Greenberg, the head of Bear Stearns when Cayne was rising through the ranks at the company, also played bridge and the two often played together at New York’s Regency Whist Club, the Journal reported.

The club at 15 East 67th St. in New York City was described this year by New York Times bridge columnist Alan Truscott as having “a reputation for sociable comfort and fine food since it was founded exactly half a century ago.”

While skill at bridge would appear to be advancement plus at Bear Stearns it may not trump concern for the bottom line.

Warren Spector, who until this summer was co-president of Bear Stearns, is also a competitive bridge player, ranked higher in the world than Cayne.

Both he and Cayne were at the same bridge tournament in Nashville this summer when all hell was breaking at Bear Stearns.

Cayne went back to New York before Spector and he later asked for, and received, Spector’s resignation.

“Mr. Cayne was annoyed that Mr. Spector was away from the office during the fund crisis,” the Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.

Since the crisis, Bear Stearns has laid off 800 people, though 15,000 remain, the paper reported.

Cayne, who is 73, remains on the job, presumably analyzing his hand and deciding which card to play next.

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• Mortgage mess sinks Wall Street exec - August 6, 2007
• Cayne reported leaving CEO job at Bear Stearns - January 8, 2008
• Golf and cards consumed too much of Cayne’s final days at Bear Stearns - August 6, 2008
• Buffett unseats Gates on billionaire list - March 6, 2008
• Amidst Bear Stearns takeover, Greenberg and Cayne criticize each other - May 7, 2008
• Cayne, Macklowe keep their condos at The Plaza - April 8, 2008
• Andrew Beal knew when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em - October 4, 2009
• Investor Ron Baron on shifting sands - October 31, 2008
• NY Fed bails out Bear Stearns - March 15, 2008
• The charity work of Bear Stearns’ Alan Schwartz - January 9, 2008