BRIDGE TO NOWHERE

Former Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne has had better years.

In the 12 months since the government forced his beloved-but-teetering-on-the-edge-of-insolvency brokerage firm to be sold to JPMorgan Chase, the 75-year-old Wall Street veteran:

* Had his reputation sullied as he was portrayed as an out-of-touch manager

* Seen ties between him and some of his decades-long Bear colleagues become completely severed

* Lost about $1 billion in net worth thanks to his company shares tanking.

* Posted seemingly declining performances for his international bridge team – and when you spend about $1 million a year to piece together a team that one rival calls “the Yankees of the bridge world,” that has got to hurt.

As the anniversary of the $10 a share March 17 sale of Bear to Jamie Dimon’s JPMorgan nears, the often-outspoken Cayne appears to have mellowed.

“I’ve settled into retirement,” Cayne told The Post in a short telephone interview last week from Houston, where he was, fittingly, participating in a bridge tournament.

“Bridge is what I do a lot, and when the weather permits I play a lot of golf,” he said. While he has spent much of the past six months far from the headlines and sharp elbows of Wall Street, that may soon change.

A book chronicling the downfall of Bear Stearns is hitting store shelves this week and it is likely to pick open some scabs.

In the book, author William D. Cohan, re-heats old barbs hurled at Cayne, that he was more interested in playing bridge in his later years atop Bear then in running the broker, and that a series of bad decisions didn’t right the firm after it was caught in a cash crunch.

Cayne declined to comment to The Post about the firm’s collapse but said, again, that “it was a sad moment” and that he is “sad for the 14,000 families that were hurt.”

He was a bit more exercised last year when, he is quoted in Cohan’s book, “House of Cards” (Doubleday), calling then-New York Fed boss Tim Geithner “some clerk” for not offering Bear the lifeline of a loan.

“This guy thinks he’s got a big d-k. He’s got nothing, except maybe a boyfriend. I’m not a good enemy. I’m a very bad enemy. It’s just that for some clerk to make a decision based on what, your own personal feeling about whether or not they’re a good credit? Who the f-k asked you?You’re not an elected official. You’re a clerk. Believe me, you’re a clerk. I want to open up on this f–r, that’s all I can tell you,” he says in the book.

It is fitting that Cayne talked to the Post from an international bridge tournament – because the executive was at a similar tournament last March as Bear Stearns breathed its last.

Cayne and his bridge team – consisting of Rome-based players and a friend from Florida – finished first in that March 2008 Detroit tournament, quite a feat as it was done as Cayne’s firm was in its death throes. Cayne claims he was in contact with the firm from the tourney.

Later in 2008, with lots more time on his hands, Cayne’s team finished third in two separate tournaments, according to official bridge league statistics.

His professional reputation has also taken a hit.

“Jimmy Cayne never chose to diversify the firm,” Cohan said in an interview Friday.

Cayne had opportunities to buy Neuberger Berman, an investment management firm, and Pershing, a clearing house, and he didn’t, Cohan said. Cayne had chances to raise more capital, and didn’t, he said. “He had chances to go in on mortgage-backed securities,” Cohan added.

And when he had to pick the right person to help steady Bear as it teetered, Cayne whiffed, Cohan said. “Alan Schwartz is a great guy and I respect him immensely but he’s an M&A guy. At just the moment where they needed someone [with fixed-income experience] Jimmy fired Warren Spector [with fixed-income experience] making Alan Schwartz the only guy to run the place.”

Not everyone hangs Bear’s demise on Cayne.

“This wasn’t about Bear Stearns, or one firm, this was about a market system that was broken,” said Alexandra Lebenthal, president and CEO of Lebenthal & Co., a financial services firm.

Cayne was worth $1.6 billion a year before the collapse. He is said to have lost $1 billion on Bear’s failure. While he may have lost a third of the remainder if he was invested in equities, he could still have $400 million left.

That and a loving family can go a long way.

Acquaintances say Cayne plays bridge over the Internet most days, and when he does he can spend up to six hours online. He certainly has the time.

While records show Cayne was, until last month, still officially employed by several JPMorgan and Bear entities, he hasn’t set foot near its offices.