Washington Mutual

The FHFA complaints lose explanatory power and persuasiveness because they ignore compensation and accounting. It pays to understand accounting control fraud.

In the months since I began this website, I have had some fairly harsh things to say about economic policy in the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere. I have consistently condemned what I think is a captured government promoting an unstable…

Remember the iconic Depression-era movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, in which Jimmy Stewart plays the wholesome young man in Washington out to do good? Well, Mr. Smith could just as easily have been your friendly banker at Washington…

The Seattle Times has a must-read piece on Washington Mutual today which reveals a lot of the fine detail on how the company was run and what led to its demise (hat tip calculated Risk). As with many of the other busted financial giants…

In a 9-page Vanity Fair article “Wall Street’s Near-Death Experience,”giving us a sneak peek into the lives of bankers during the global meltdown last Autumn a hilarious quote of great significance was buried. At issue was the near-death…

The following Bloomberg article points out why I have repeatedly argued that banks will be earning a lot of money, Meredith Whitney’s counter-arguments notwithstanding. It also points out why the likes of John Hempton believe that the FDIC…

Judging from today's open on Wall Street, it looks like that's the question people are asking. Wachovia and NCC are the two companies under the heaviest selling pressure, both down about 20% already at 9:45.Remember that National City is…

JP Morgan Chase has taken over the deposit taking subsidiary of Washington Mutual. The transaction is effective immediately, meaning it has closed. This is the biggest deal in FDIC activity yet. Note: I originally heard this story just…

As we plan for another day in financial turmoil, I have to admit to preferring financial services industry consolidation through merger to bankruptcy. I was just reading FT Alphaville's post on a proposed Lloyds TSB takeover of HBOS (the…

The world of financial services in not looking terribly stable in the wake of the Frannie nationalization. In fact, things are as jumbled as they have ever been. The latest news has AIG down 30% and both WaMu and Lehman brothers on the…