Inside the financial meltdown
This is a fascinating look inside Washington Mutual as it was imploding last year. The most mind blowing line?
“Someone in Florida had made a second-mortgage loan to O.J. Simpson, and I just about blew my top, because there was this huge judgment against him from his wife’s parents,” she recalled. Simpson had been acquitted of killing his wife Nicole and her friend but was later found liable for their deaths in a civil lawsuit; that judgment took precedence over other debts, such as if Simpson defaulted on his WaMu loan.
“When I asked how we could possibly foreclose on it, they said there was a letter in the file from O.J. Simpson saying ‘the judgment is no good, because I didn’t do it.’
That part is amusing, but most of it is pretty scary. I understand the idea of keeping government out of personal lives, but when people are this greedy and irresponsible what other options are there?
on October 26, 2009 at 11:17 am
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‘the judgment is no good, because I didn’t do it.’ is totally bumper-sticker or t-shirt material.
You should check out this interview on NPR with the author of ‘Too Big To Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System’
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113938903
on October 26, 2009 at 2:03 pm
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I saw that – Calculated Risk had an excerpt from the book. They have been posting lots of “too big to fail” commentary lately – its a scary thing to read about (full disclosure – I’m part of the problem, most of my money is in a megabank).