Wachovia: COME ON DOWN!

NYT reports Wachovia in talks with Citi:

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/wachovia-begins-early-deal-talks-with-citi/?ref=business

They already had been talking with Morgan Stanley.

 

Wachovia's downfall was buying Golden West, with their multitude of loans for overpriced shitboxes.

 

That didn't help. I'm not an economist, but I know one thing: We need to stop this death spiral of financial institutions going up in smoke.

 

Wachovia will rape you at every turn. Fuck 'em. Unfortunately, they're still my bank.

 

I dropped them at my earliest convenience.

 

And fuck, does this mean the Wachovia Center is going to have to change its name again?

 

My first credit card was a Wachovia card. Had it barely three months and hardly used it, then when I went to a money machine the fucking ATM ate it.

 

Wachovia was a good bank when it was First Union.

 

The Bobby Clarke Intelligent Free Agent Signing Center?

 

Why?

Shit companies who have made shit decisions deserve to perish.

If we have to rename a few sporting venues, so be it.

 

Gosh, it was about five years ago, when the economy was doing well by comparison, when someone did that study about how well over half the companies that bought naming rights to new sports venues went tits up before the end of the first season in the joint. TD BankNorth Garden is on about its fourth name. Gillette Stadium was renamed before it opened as the original high-tech firm who bought the name (ECI? I forget) went from 160 a share to less than 2 during construction. And those are just the Boston ones.

 

Here's an example of a "smart" decision WaMu made (this had to have criminal intent)
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2008/09/why-wamu-failed.html#comments

You can make these things complicated, or you can make them simple. I'll make this one simple. Washington Mutual failed not because of a credit squeeze or a crisis of confidence or because it participated in esoteric investment vehicles.

It failed because it made thousands -- tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands -- of really stupid decisions. The weight of those boneheaded moves sunk the bank.

Let me highlight one, courtesy of Bubble Info, a San Diego real estate blog I like. The blog shows a small, poorly maintained house marked with graffiti inside and out. A couch sits on the front patio. From Bubble Info:

MenloWaMu refinanced this 1,500sf house in City Heights just over a year ago -- when it was obvious that the market was in trouble, and the smarter banks should have been reeling in their lending practices.

The owner paid $83,000 when he bought it from Home Savings in 1995.

WaMu loaned him $449,000 in June 2007.

It's now being offered as a short sale -- for $140,000!

Two cents: The loan was made in June 2007, after the subprime collapse. Sorry folks, but this is a form of corporate suicide.



Explain why "we" need to stop these companies from failing.