Bear Stearns has finally become a victim of the market rumours that the firm said were unfounded: in the past 24 hours, Bear Stearns’ liquidity has fallen so much — marking a failure of the firm’s ability to “parse fact from fiction,” that the investment bank had to seek help from JP Morgan and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. JP Morgan is also helping Bear find sources of permanent financing “or other alternatives for the company.”

Here are four things to watch as the Bear Stearns crisis unfolds across TV screens and computer monitors: