patrick.net

FDIC takes WaMu on Thursday? What happened to Bank Failure Friday?

Grandpa McCain is showing his true colors by evading debate and issues like a headless chicken. I would have voted for McCain when was in his 40s, or 50s, but Senile McCain? He is losing it both mentally and physically, 30 years too late.

Which brings to the subject of what to cut for the country's multiple entitlement programs. I am all for cutting down medicare, it is just completely absurd to see a country that only caters to the dying batch leaving the infants and children uncovered. Every dollar of Medicaid cut has to be matched by the Medicare cut.

If someone can fund his own retirement and medical expenses when he is old, that means he has done something right. If he cannot, he fucked his life and we shall not be responsible. This country needs to learn about how to let people fail, let people go bankrupt, and let people die.

In what is by far the largest bank failure in U.S. history, federal regulators seized Washington Mutual Inc. and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

The closing represents the demise of what once was the largest U.S. thrift but came to symbolize many of the worst excesses of the mortgage boom. Federal regulators said WaMu has suffered an exodus of $16.7 billion in deposits since Sept. 15, leaving the Seattle thrift "with insufficient liquidity to meet its obligations." As a result, WaMu was in "an unsafe and unsound condition to transact business," according to the Office of Thrift Supervision.

While the exact structure of the transaction wasn't immediately known, J.P. Morgan is expected to acquire Washington Mutual's deposits and branches, as well as other operations. The deal isn't expected to result in any hit to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s bank-insurance fund, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. Some analysts have worried that a WaMu failure could cost more than $20 billion.

Federal regulators have been heavily involved in orchestrating the transaction, which comes as WaMu grapples with its bad mortgage loans. Regulators were hoping to fend off a collapse of WaMu, which, with more than $300 billion in assets, would mark by far the largest banking failure in U.S. history.

http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/wamu.html

This is the biggest one yet!

Grandpa McCain is showing his true colors by evading debate and issues like a headless chicken.

So you're going to cast your vote for a no talent fucking ass clown whose sole accomplishment is taking over the office vacated by some asshole who wanted to fuck someone other than 7 of 9? Why not just tell the fucking truth? You don't want to vote for someone older than you, enjoy your fucking boomerism you fucking piece of shit, embrace it, don't hide from it.

evading the debate? Watch McCain turn your little bitch out like the mumbling fuck he is. Watch NObama without his teleprompter. Yeah fuckwad, and I quote, "aaa bbb you see, come on, you're all fired up aaa bbb aaaa"

I am suprised to see a group of GOP members killing this Bailout. I have not had anything good to say about a Republican in a long time. There guys are my heros of the day.

THANKS GOP House Members. I will not for get your good fight. If you kill this for good, I will always remember your good service to our nation.

HELP US OBI G.O.P, You are our only hope!

The headlines read "JPMorgan to buy WaMu Assets" -- nothing about WaMu seizure. Very distracting.

Surfer-X -- Why wonder any longer about what kind of moron would vote for McCain? There is one -- in living color.

surfer-x

I think if you focus you boomer-hating energy on yourself, you would have risen to a situation not so subject to "boomer politics". I am not even a boomer, but I have had boomer friends who helped me personally tremendously.

I frankly do not judge people by their age, I judge them on how beneficial they can be to me.

To be frank, deal or no deal doesn't matter.

Deal = collapse later
No deal = collapse faster

The only difference is how much wall street can walk away with.

1) I am grateful for the republicans blocking the attempted theft from the treasury.

2) I will be taking to the streets, but not to march, but to dance with joy at the demise of WaMu.

Calling EBGuy, the in-house Fed B/S specialist for a Thursday powwow.

We specifically reserve Friday for bank failure parties.

Calling EBGuy, the in-house Fed B/S spec1alist for a Thursday powwow.

We specifically reserve Friday for bank failure parties.

Sorry, EBGuy is wretching.... blahhhhhhh.... He predicted a JPM takeover of WaMu, just not quite the way the FDIC arranged the dance card.
And the latest H.4.1, nothing we didn't already know, but it still looks ugly when you put it all in one place...

Ron Paul banzai!

I am all for cutting down medicare, it is just completely absurd to see a country that only caters to the dying batch leaving the infants and children uncovered. Every dollar of Medicaid cut has to be matched by the Medicare cut.

Scrap medicare. Scrap medicaid. Tie voting power to effective tax rate!

I am NOT against universal healthcare. The only way for that to happen is to get rid of healthcare for special interest groups like the elderly.

Seems like Paulson knelt on his knees begging for the plan to be approved. I hope someone has captured that moment on camera.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/business/26bailout.html

This is scary. If that egoistic bastard is in this desperate situation then this is even worse than what most people on this blog have imagined.

All the more reason to not support the bailout. If the economy is going to be utterly ruined, then the less tax payer money we waste on bankers, the better.

He wasn't asking Pelosi to marry him?

It took you 2 years Peter, but you finally made me smile

StuckInBA,

that was my reaction too. I don't buy the Paulson is evil viewpoint. I actually kindof like Bernake too.

I'm pretty sure they know whats going to happen either way. If nothing else, they are going through the motions so that they go down in history as having "tried".

Can anyone else feel the sea change going on? The public is starting to turn.

We are finally talking about the right things as a society.

Capitulation breeds fear first, then optimism with a new sense of direction.

How many of you believed Paulson when he said in the hearings "Guess what? Taxpayers are already on the hook".

His argument, which does scare the hell of me if it is true, is that without this bill, credit freezes up. As someone with no debt and no mortgage, it is tempting to think "F*ck 'em! Let the banks die". But that could very well mean my employer cannot make the next payroll because their lines of credit have been revoked. No more paychecks, no more health benefits, no more 401k...talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Jesus, this sucks. This board has been predicting similar outcomes for years now, and getting the label of the "tin-foil-hat-crowd". How dare we say that real estate does not always increase in value? How dare we throw around words like "inflation", "recession" and "depression" when the party was in full swing? That it is coming to fruition is both gratifying and horrifying. We are truly stuck between a rock and a hard place if Paulson is telling the truth.

What's the trust level out there about a former Goldman Sachs chief executive getting an open line of credit from the taxpayers to keep the sky from falling on Wall Street? Do we believe him?

That sounds great TOB. It brings a little light to the gloom we're in.

Trust is a particularly sensitive issue for Americans now. After the Bush administration's most recent "sky is falling and we must invade Iraq/Afghanistan and suspend the Constitution" stunt, it is understandable that many Americans will not trust this latest "crisis" as fact. How many trillions are we willing to gamble again?

That it is Paulson pulling the alarm this time is not much better, given his background. I will let go and go with trust for now. I think he's not nearly as evil as the Bush/Cheney crowd.

Fuzzy :

This will change the American society. After a long and arduous road, we might emerge as a better nation. We might.

We are well past the denial phase. We are rushing through the anger phase and are now at the border of bargaining phase.

Till now, many people had a hope that this is a temporary downturn. People like us were still being treated as lunatics. Now it is dawning upon folks what exactly is the severity of the situation and what grave danger we are facing.

Now when the president, the treasury secretary, the Fed chief and the congressmen are acting like paranoids - people know that we were not the chicken littles.

This will force them to hear the hard, logical point of view. Back to basics, baby, back to basics. The road to prosperity is via hard work and financial prudence. Ponzi scheme eventually fail. They are destined to fail.

It will take a long time before we repeat the financial euphoria. Think how long it took after depression to have a bubble of some kind. The process of rebuilding is going to be slow, very slow. But it will happen. And in a sane way.

When rest of the country was celebrating their million dollar equity - I was very pessimistic. Now that people think of being in an apocalypse - I am oddly optimistic. This slap in the face - or maybe kick in the balls - was needed to get out of hangover.

It's time to FaceReality of The Other Side. Get used to it. It's going to be a while.

Thanks StuckInBA. I've been so used to doom-and-gloom for these past few years and particularly these past two weeks, I think I need a kick in my proverbial balls to get through the hangover.

Imagine a US economy not based on spiraling debt and ponzi schemes? Imagine a nation of savers instead of a nation of debt-enslaved, mind-numbed drones? It's actually quite inspiring.

Lowly :

I do not trust Paulson. I have a hard time trusting anyone in power or anyone who wants to be in power.

More than the dollar amount - the way this plan was pushed - it just stinks. The timing of it - just before the congress recess is very fishy. Why didn't he present this plan 3 weeks ago instead of claiming that the banking system is sound ?

The language - very arrogant. If you don't pay top dollar for the sh1t, banks may not participate. If you limit their executive pay, banks may not participate. If you demand anything in return like equity, banks won't participate. So the banks are doing us a favor by accepting our money ?

I don't think the whole economy will simply freeze if we do not give this blank check to Paulson. People who think that they can control the course of economy are as stupid/arrogant as the scientists in Jurassic Park. They thought they can create the beast and control it and profit from it. But it's eating them instead - and unfortunately many innocent bystanders.

Economy evolves. It functioned fine 2000 years ago - all over the world. It functioned after the great depression. And it will function now. It will be a very different economy where people may have to pay cash instead. And they might need to even save - gee what a concept !

If there is no car loan available, prices of cars will come down to a level where people can afford it with cash. The process won't happen overnight and won't be pretty - and it won't be as simple as that. Yes. But we will adapt. Human race is amazing in adapting itself.

Don't let fear rule you.

Lowly :

I was responding to your previous question about trusting Paulson. Our messages got posted almost at the same time.

Yeah, StuckInBA, I think we're on the same wave length. I don't fully trust Paulson. It's the usual lesser of two evils bargain that we routinely confront.

Anyone know why something like Sweden's 1992 bank buy-out - not bailout! - wasn't considered? (Yeah, I know...)

They had a fairly similar though necessarily smaller mess going on, and the Swedish taxpayers managed to come out of it without taking nearly as much of a bath as we're being asked to (and they stand a good chance of recovering even more of their money). On the other hand, the bank shareholders got bitchslapped.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/business/worldbusiness/23krona.html

"Sweden did not just bail out its financial institutions by having the government take over the bad debts. It extracted pounds of flesh from bank shareholders before writing checks. Banks had to write down losses and issue warrants to the government.

That strategy held banks responsible and turned the government into an owner. When distressed assets were sold, the profits flowed to taxpayers, and the government was able to recoup more money later by selling its shares in the companies as well."

I'm not even sure I'd want us to do what Sweden did, but it makes me less ill than thinking about what Paulson & Co. want from us.

Lowly,

This is not cutting off your nose to spite your face. The fact is, the Pualson plan will NOT solve the problem. It is throwing good money afterbad.

The recession and possible depression is here because it should be. Delaying price discovery, a-la Japan, will make this more painful as capital continues to be misallocated.

There simply is not enough borrownig capacity to solve the leverage problems - and since we seem to be honoring those credit default swaps (wo did you see that loan to Citi to pay lehman to pay citi to settle the CDS?)

What we get with the Paulson plan, in addition to the horror of watching that arrogant jerk play daddy to the entire country, is a bigger debt burden - for NOTHING.

We are talking 700b in front of bond-holders who all knew they were taking risk.

Peopl will learn to stop chasing returns if they understand that risk is, umm, risky.

WOW
Great articles in the NYT, Hurray for Krugman for blasting Paulson.
Hurray for Fischer at the Fed fr blasting Bernanke.

We seem to have awoken from our stupor!

Look - thngs will get bad. They will. Then they will get better. We can build an economy and a society we are proud of.

Keep the pressure on Congress! There is still hope as long as you can keep them from reaching an agreement!

Dear Brown, Kaptur and Voinovich,

We live in a Republic. Your job is to represent your constituents when making legislation. A majority is opposed to a Wall Street bailout. There are protests all over the nation in opposition to this legislation! Why are you guys still discussing a bailout like it is even a possibility? The people have spoken loud and clear! Do not pass a bailout and don’t even discuss a bailout. I would rather deal with the consequences to the situation that we are in than bailout Wall Street.

Not only is the majority against a bailout, this legislation is unconstitutional. Refer to Article 1 section 8 of the US Constitution. You will see that the powers of Congress are laid out for “To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures”. Abdicating your powers to the Executive branch is illegal! This is exactly what happened during the Iraq War bill. Do not break your oath of office and the Constitution by passing this Wall Street bailout.

Japan tried to save it self during a credit deflation in the late 1980’s and it caused a painful 10+ year long recession. I would rather get the pain over with and purge the market of inefficient uses of money. The faster we get back to good practices for economic growth, the faster we can deploy capital for investment and growth.

Do not throw more good money after bad money! You will probably not keep your job when the next election comes around if you go against the wishes of the people of Ohio.

TOB that video of the protest is amazing. If only for half a day, this is the first time I've been proud of the country I live in for years.

Keep it up people.

OO Says:
for small amount buy locally, find a coin dealer that has been in business for many years.

Any names of such, near the "fortress"?

Paul Says:
Whoooo Hooooo - ME TOO!!!!! I hated those ads; Good ridden s.

And I heard ads for Wamu CDs on the AM radio on the way to work - late yesterday morning. Literally like a couple of hours before they went under.

Mish International Monetary Inc
1154 University Dve
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Phone: 650 324 9110

they are also authorized dealer for Perth Mint, that's why I consider them reputable. Perth Mint is doing the legwork to make sure they are not flight-by-night type.

Love the "no banker left behind" photo (WCBS).

I will be voting REPUBLICAN since they are blocking bailout.