Bear Stearns

Bear Stearns was a big company that helped people buy and sell things called stocks and bonds. They had lots of people working for them and lots of money. But one day, people started to worry that some of the things Bear Stearns had bought and sold might not be worth as much as they thought.

Lots of people started asking for their money back from Bear Stearns and they didn't have enough money to give everyone. This made people worried that Bear Stearns might go bankrupt, which means they would run out of money and have to close down their business.

Then something called a "bailout" happened, which means the government gave Bear Stearns some money to help them stay in business. But even with the government's help, Bear Stearns couldn't make enough money to keep going, so they ended up being bought by another company.