Is it too early to get nostalgic for Jimmy Cayne? He was a dream chief executive for those of us who worry that Wall Street may be getting a bit too buttoned-down, populated by cubicles full of gunners with Ivy League degrees who lack even the sense of confident entitlement that such pieces of paper once promised. Even while the credit markets crushed two funds bearing his firm's name, Cayne was providing fodder for headline writers to make puns about the funds going "up in smoke." Somehow we doubt Alan Schwartz is going to be anywhere near that much fun.

These reflections were prompted this morning by the news that a third Bear Stearns fund, known as the Bear Stearns Asset Backed Securities Fund, was going to be shuttered. As recently as August, BSABS held $900 million in assets. Now it is returning $90 million to investors, with promises to return a bit more once it finds a way to sell assets it thinks might be worth, well, something. Fingers crossed!

In retrospect, B.S. ABS may not have been the most auspicious initials for a hedge fund.

Bear Stearns Shuts Asset-Backed Hedge Fund After Loss [Bloomberg]