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agreed, there are enough well capitalized, well perfoming firms in this country and around the globe to make sure the US economy, and in turn the world economy doesn't totally collapse.
And Wachovia was one of the pickier banks! Gobbled up by Citi eee gads! Where will this end?
(Un)Fortunately credit is what greases the whole machine, the big pie in the sky money machine.
Golden West was what brought them down. Ken Thompson had some questionable dealings in getting that merger through. He got a large chunk of change when they resigned him.
Golden West was what brought them down. Ken Thompson had some questionable dealings in getting that merger through. He got a large chunk of change when they resigned him.
On a May 2007 conference call, Wachovia Corp.'s then-Chief Executive Officer Ken Thompson trumpeted the $24 billion acquisition of Golden West Financial Corp., a California lender that specialized in payment-option adjustable-rate mortgages. "I think that 12 months or so from now people are going to look at the acquisition of Golden West as one that produced great success for Wachovia,'' Thompson said. Seventeen months later, Thompson is gone and so is Wachovia. After losing 82% of its market value since that conference call due to mounting losses on option ARMs, the bank was sold to Citigroup Inc. today in a deal brokered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
"Golden West was the beginning of the end'' for Wachovia, said Anat Bird, a former Wells Fargo & Co. executive who now runs SCB Forums Ltd., a Granite Bay, CA, company that conducts peer group conferences for bankers. Golden West "had lousy assets, lousy liabilities and they (Wachovia) paid a fortune for it.'' Wachovia holds $122B of option ARMs, which the Charlotte, NC-based bank calls "pick-a-pay'' mortgages, 72% of its residential loan portfolio, according to its website, and the most of any U.S. bank. Four of the five biggest holders of option ARMs no longer exist, according to a ranking by Bethesda, MD-based industry newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance.
End of excerpt
The stats in the main story are amazing. No wonder Thompson is gone, he must have been an idiot.
Last edited by Mike from back east; 09-29-2008 at 07:38 PM..
I'm old enough to remember when there were no credit cards (maybe a Diner's Club but not one "regular" people had.) I'm old enough to remember when people saved money to buy cars. I'm old enough to remember when people expected (unless they were wealthy) to rent for several years while they saved the money to either build or buy a house. Now true, life was much more simple then and there were not so many toys for us to "need" to buy. But guess what! Few people were in debt. Most families were supported by one income. Vacations were not fancy...usually a trip to a cabin in the woods or maybe to the farm to visit grandma and grandpa....but they were a time for a family to relax together....not pay for years on.
Then we discovered credit. Now people HAD to buy a 4 bedroom house as soon as they got married. They HAD to have all new expensive furniture for their new house. They HAD to have two or three cars and at least one had to be an SUV. They HAD to have 40" TVs, surround sound, IPODs, gaming systems, phones that do things no phone was ever meant to do, and they HAVE to take vacations every year that cost more than we once paid for a house.
I'm old enough to remember when there were no credit cards (maybe a Diner's Club but not one "regular" people had.) I'm old enough to remember when people saved money to buy cars. I'm old enough to remember when people expected (unless they were wealthy) to rent for several years while they saved the money to either build or buy a house. Now true, life was much more simple then and there were not so many toys for us to "need" to buy. But guess what! Few people were in debt. Most families were supported by one income. Vacations were not fancy...usually a trip to a cabin in the woods or maybe to the farm to visit grandma and grandpa....but they were a time for a family to relax together....not pay for years on.
Then we discovered credit. Now people HAD to buy a 4 bedroom house as soon as they got married. They HAD to have all new expensive furniture for their new house. They HAD to have two or three cars and at least one had to be an SUV. They HAD to have 40" TVs, surround sound, IPODs, gaming systems, phones that do things no phone was ever meant to do, and they HAVE to take vacations every year that cost more than we once paid for a house.
Well, how's that working for everyone?
I must be as old as you are, because I remember all of that too....
I'm old enough to remember when there were no credit cards (maybe a Diner's Club but not one "regular" people had.) I'm old enough to remember when people saved money to buy cars. I'm old enough to remember when people expected (unless they were wealthy) to rent for several years while they saved the money to either build or buy a house. Now true, life was much more simple then and there were not so many toys for us to "need" to buy. But guess what! Few people were in debt. Most families were supported by one income. Vacations were not fancy...usually a trip to a cabin in the woods or maybe to the farm to visit grandma and grandpa....but they were a time for a family to relax together....not pay for years on.
Then we discovered credit. Now people HAD to buy a 4 bedroom house as soon as they got married. They HAD to have all new expensive furniture for their new house. They HAD to have two or three cars and at least one had to be an SUV. They HAD to have 40" TVs, surround sound, IPODs, gaming systems, phones that do things no phone was ever meant to do, and they HAVE to take vacations every year that cost more than we once paid for a house.
Well, how's that working for everyone?
Working fine for us, as we did it the old-fashioned way as you described.
I remember when credit cards were "charge plates" and very few people had one. Then we let lobbyists write our banking laws, and oil men write our energy laws, and we let GM execs work for Eisenhower on the interstate highway system. Congress has been bought and paid for by corporate greedsters for so many years now that our nation cannot survive much longer without a huge debacle. Bailing out Wall Street will only feed the junkies, when what they need is to be slapped into a rubber room for a long long time - and the rest of us need to retake our government.
Working fine for us, as we did it the old-fashioned way as you described.
I remember when credit cards were "charge plates" and very few people had one. Then we let lobbyists write our banking laws, and oil men write our energy laws, and we let GM execs work for Eisenhower on the interstate highway system. Congress has been bought and paid for by corporate greedsters for so many years now that our nation cannot survive much longer without a huge debacle. Bailing out Wall Street will only feed the junkies, when what they need is to be slapped into a rubber room for a long long time - and the rest of us need to retake our government.
All 435 house seats are up for reelection this time around. If they voted yes, toss them out. Don't worry about the party. They're all the same.
Location: Charlotte,NC, US, North America, Earth, Alpha Quadrant,Milky Way Galaxy
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What's a great tragedy is that we're approaching a time when the average American won't recollect a time when they saved to buy things. They'll remember the barbie with the credit card and their very first $200 credit card in college without absolutely no income.
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