As the dust continues to settle around the annihilation of Washington Mutual by Jamie Dimon's JPMorgan Chase, common stockholders of WAMU should be readying the pitchforks and torches and hunting down the directors who so shamelessly abandoned the company in a week of a panic leading up to the congressional rescue vote. A good place to start the effigy is with replacement CEO, Alan Fishman, who stands to make $7.5 million in a signing bonus for two and half weeks worth of "work."
Fishman, who seems more interested in not spilling martinis on his evening wear than mulling through stacks of 8-Ks and 10-Qs, may have orchestrated this so-called run on the bank by phoning Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and blowing the whistle to facilitate a fire sale of the nation's largest thrift. In my opinion, he should be sued and shamed far worse than Martha Stewart was for her ImClone dealings.
While Washington Mutual's loan portfolio stunk worse than a wino smeared in his own feces, its physical market share and deposit base had value, so much so that it was speculated Jamie Dimon was willing to bid $7.50 per share, that is until he found out he could screw the common shareholder completely.
As congress bickered over the bailout, executives of Washington Mutual watched their offers dry up as Jim Cramer stumped irresponsibly on CNBC's Mad Money about a run on its bank, but where was the evidence? I didn't see any lines at the branches strewn about the Tri-State area, nor did I hear any mention of it from Governor Swarzenegger when he delivered his moratorium on the state of California's economy, where WAMU was most exposed.
How could a bank, governed by the Office of Thrift Supervision, disclose that it was well capitalized and at the height of its provisioning for loan losses a month ago be marauded overnight?
The whole thing reeks more than the unfettered sub-prime lending WAMU proliferated during the deregulated Bush administration. Not to mention that scoundrel Kerry Killinger who should be thrown in jail for defrauding the public and stealing more loot from shareholders than those convicted for Enron's malfeasance.
Reports are that Alan Fishman won't be seeking severance that JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay WAMU's employees, but then again I'm not sure how much he'd be entitled to for two and half weeks anyway.
Fishman, who seems more interested in not spilling martinis on his evening wear than mulling through stacks of 8-Ks and 10-Qs, may have orchestrated this so-called run on the bank by phoning Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and blowing the whistle to facilitate a fire sale of the nation's largest thrift. In my opinion, he should be sued and shamed far worse than Martha Stewart was for her ImClone dealings.
While Washington Mutual's loan portfolio stunk worse than a wino smeared in his own feces, its physical market share and deposit base had value, so much so that it was speculated Jamie Dimon was willing to bid $7.50 per share, that is until he found out he could screw the common shareholder completely.
As congress bickered over the bailout, executives of Washington Mutual watched their offers dry up as Jim Cramer stumped irresponsibly on CNBC's Mad Money about a run on its bank, but where was the evidence? I didn't see any lines at the branches strewn about the Tri-State area, nor did I hear any mention of it from Governor Swarzenegger when he delivered his moratorium on the state of California's economy, where WAMU was most exposed.
How could a bank, governed by the Office of Thrift Supervision, disclose that it was well capitalized and at the height of its provisioning for loan losses a month ago be marauded overnight?
The whole thing reeks more than the unfettered sub-prime lending WAMU proliferated during the deregulated Bush administration. Not to mention that scoundrel Kerry Killinger who should be thrown in jail for defrauding the public and stealing more loot from shareholders than those convicted for Enron's malfeasance.
Reports are that Alan Fishman won't be seeking severance that JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay WAMU's employees, but then again I'm not sure how much he'd be entitled to for two and half weeks anyway.