March 14 (Bloomberg) -- The following are comments by Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., about the future of Bear Stearns Cos., which today received emergency funding from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the New York Federal Reserve.

``It strikes me that the issue that Bear has right now is one of gaining confidence in the fixed-income markets. The Fed has provided the funding that's going to keep them alive. In other words, we don't have a funding run right now, but the problem is how do you re-start a trading operation? We really don't have any examples of that being successful in the marketplace. Will you do that foreign exchange trade with Bear? Will you do that bond trade with Bear? And the answer is no because you don't know whether Bear's going to be there and let's recognize that there's counterparty clearing risk that occurs.

``So the issue with Bear is not one of catastrophic failure today, the issue is really one of how the hell do you make any money if nobody will do any deals with you? This is one that has to be the subject of the entire weekend. They can't issue bonds in the marketplace, trading volumes are going to drop like a stone and the hedge funds are all going to go elsewhere quickly in terms of doing their prime brokerage business.

``Unfortunately it's easy to concoct a scenario that says this becomes a run-off strategy. It doesn't mean the assets aren't worth anything, it doesn't mean the franchise isn't worth anything, but I'm not at all certain how you put the defibrillators on and jumpstart the company again.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 14, 2008 13:20 EDT