Trading 8s » Kirsten Grind http://www.anthonyworlando.com A blog by Anthony W. Orlando and friends Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:05:33 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Best of the Month: December 2009 http://www.anthonyworlando.com/2010/01/21/best-of-the-month-december-2009/ http://www.anthonyworlando.com/2010/01/21/best-of-the-month-december-2009/#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:07:19 +0000 Anthony W. Orlando http://www.anthonyworlando.com/?p=2450 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> 10. Listening to Afghanistan — Ann Friedman
9. Why Federal Regulators Closed Washington Mutual — Kirsten Grind
8. Somalia Is Greatest Victim of President Bush’s War on Terror — Martin Fletcher
7. The Silent Cleric Who Holds the Key to Iran’s Future — Robert Fisk
6. Myth vs. Reality on the Copenhagen Climate Summit — Andrew Light, Rebecca Lefton, & Daniel J. Weiss
5. Health-Reform Legislation Would Accomplish More Than Critics Admit — Henry J. Aaron and The Congressional Budget Office Scores the Amended Senate Bill — Ezra Klein and The 150,000-Life Health-Care Plan — Ezra Klein
4. Coverage and Costs — Paul Krugman and The Senate Bill Saves Families Money — Jonathan Cohn and Improve the Bill, Yes. Kill the Bill, No. — Jonathan Cohn
3. How the Senate Bill Would Contain the Cost of Health Care — Atul Gawande
2. Lessons Learned But Not Applied — Simon Johnson and Avoiding a Japanese Decade — New York Times
1. Something from Nothing — Nir Rosen and Pentagon’s War Pitch Belied by Taliban-Qaeda Conflict — Gareth Porter and A Plan in Need of Clarity — Sen. Jim Webb and Obama’s Surge: Has the President Been Misled by the Iraq Analogy? — Juan Cole
BONUS: Banks Too Big? Government Has Failed To Do Its Job — Anthony W. Orlando and Nuclear Armament: Iran Acting Like a Cornered Animal — Anthony W. Orlando

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]]> http://www.anthonyworlando.com/2010/01/21/best-of-the-month-december-2009/feed/ 0 Best of the Week: December 6-12, 2009 http://www.anthonyworlando.com/2010/01/01/best-of-the-week-december-6-12-2009/ http://www.anthonyworlando.com/2010/01/01/best-of-the-week-december-6-12-2009/#comments Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:02:05 +0000 Anthony W. Orlando http://www.anthonyworlando.com/?p=2268 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> 10. The Demons That Haunt the Pakistanis — Sabrina Tavernise

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]]> http://www.anthonyworlando.com/2010/01/01/best-of-the-week-december-6-12-2009/feed/ 0 Size Matters…Especially on Wall Street http://www.anthonyworlando.com/2009/12/07/size-matters-especially-on-wall-street/ http://www.anthonyworlando.com/2009/12/07/size-matters-especially-on-wall-street/#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:41:33 +0000 Anthony W. Orlando http://www.anthonyworlando.com/?p=2186 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> My latest column is in today’s Sun-Sentinel. You can read it here. I also want to draw your attention to a very good criticism that one reader posted beneath the column; I will reprint their comment and my reply here. “WMI_Investor” writes:

Washington Mutual seizure by the FDIC is FAR from sucessfull…. in the end it will cost the government BILLIONS in lawsuites that have been filed against the FDIC

As the facts up to the seizure become more clear – it should have never been seized in the first place.

JPM was able to pick and choose what it wanted and has left the reciever (FDIC)holding the bag on much of debt that JPM was allowed to shed from WAMU in the acqusition.

Plus FDIC seized property that was not part of the BANK… WMI was not a BANK

You need to do some more investigation and get the facts straight!  

My response:

WMI Investor,

Thank you for your feedback. I agree that we need a better resolution procedure than the FDIC receivership that was used for WaMu, but we didn’t have such a procedure in place back then. We have to compare what happened against what would have happened if the FDIC had not taken it over. Kirsten Grind’s outstanding investigative article in the Puget Sound Business Journal indicates that WaMu probably would have suffered repeated bank runs until they finally went bankrupt if the FDIC didn’t step in.

That said, WaMu has a good case in their lawsuit. Specifically, the FDIC’s decision to wipe out WaMu’s senior unsecured debt shook the wholesale interbank market and spelled the end for Wachovia. Clearly, there is more to this story than I could fit into the word limit of my column, but the fact remains that nationalization is better than Chapter 11 in the short run and TARP/PPIP in the long run. (As an investor, though, if you feel WaMu was slighted relative to Citigroup and B of A, I completely agree with you.)

Thanks again for your thoughts,
Anthony W. Orlando

I wanted you to see that exchange because I realize now that “successful” was too imprecise as I used it in the column. I meant it as a relative, not absolute, term. Regardless, the bottom line is that “too big to fail” is a very complicated (and heated) issue. To get my full take on the issue, you’ll have to buy my forthcoming book. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy today’s column.

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