Bear Stearns bails out hedge fund with $1.6 billion injection

Bear Stearns has completed the biggest hedge fund bailout since the dealer consortium-led rescue of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998. In a matter of weeks, it has had to inject $1.6 billion into its internal flagship fund, the High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Fund. And it has allowed its sister hedge fund, the High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund, to fail.

Both funds racked up hundreds of millions in mark-to-market losses this year, mainly on