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Yep. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon has cut a deal to buy Bear Stearns, the former Wall Street investment bank, for two dollars a share. That’s about $230m. And it’s not in cash. It’s in JPM stock. That’s why we have used the word “about.”That compares with a reputed book value of $80 a share (and we will not even go to the $160 BS stock fetched at one stage last year). BS has been valued at 2.5 per cent of its book value.

The terms are 0.05473 shares in JPM for each piece of BS paper. Yes, it’s an all share deal, which is intriguing. Is this such a steal that, with added patriotic gusto, JPM stock might soar on Monday, throwing a dime or two to impoverished Bear bulls, like Britain’s Joe Lewis? Or is it simply an invitation to the market to confirm that BS really is worthless - worth a billion dollars less than its property assets, no less?

The answer is complicated by the fact that a Crock-esque side deal to the takeover has the Federal Reserve funding up to $30bn of “less liquid” Bear assets.

Cynics will no doubt see this as an invitation to target other rumour-prone institutions. BS has gone from $70 to $2 in the space of a week. Others might cite it as the cathartic act that stirs the wider market into a realisation that losses can and will be aportioned, that new (albeit painful) prices for financial assets can be assigned, and the financial world can move on. Cautiously.

But DON”T for a moment think that all the guff has now been worked out of the system.

Read these extracts from the JPM release:

“This transaction helps us fill out some of the gaps in our franchise with manageable overlap,” said Steve Black, co-CEO of JPMorgan Investment Bank. “We know the Bear Stearns leadership team well and look forward to working with them to bring our two companies together.”

“Acquiring Bear Stearns enables us to obtain an attractive set of businesses,” said Bill Winters, co-CEO of JPMorgan Investment Bank. “After conducting due diligence, we’re comfortable with the quality of Bear Stearns’ business, and are pleased to have them as part of our firm.”

“JPMorgan Chase’s management team has a strong track record of effective merger integration,” said Heidi Miller, CEO of JPMorgan Treasury & Securities Services business. “We will work closely in the coming weeks with Bear Stearns’ clients and management to execute the transaction quickly.”