[rabscuttle385]

*Ping!*

[rbg81]

Four months later in May 2006, Thompson took a $24 billion plunge into the mortgage business by buying Oakland, Calif.-based Golden West Financial. Its specialty? The same loans he had cautioned against: option ARMs.

---

What a tool! Wachovia is/was my bank. I’m actually relieved they’re being taken over by Wells Fargo rather than Citi.

[RegulatorCountry]

Wachovia, a brand known for conservative lending, had changed course and forged its biggest deal ever.

Wachovia, formerly one of the most conservative and best run large regional banks in the country, began rapidly circling the bowl immediately following their acquisition by First Union, a bunch of highly questionable, go-go idiots if there ever was one. First Union needed a good name, since they'd ruined their own. They found one in Wachovia, for a short while at least, until the old habits came to the fore once again.

[hoosiermama]

Is this one we need?

[Tai_Chung]

I was offered a job at First Union several years ago. They wanted me to write software to tell the mortgage traders which packages of loans had the best value. They were especially interested in finding values missed by other banks offering bundles of mortgages for trade.

[17th Miss Regt]

Freepers, was Golden West Financial the company whose founders were lampooned on SNL about a month ago?

[AmericanGirlRising]

Herb and Marion Sandler’s involvement in Golden West/Wachovia cannot be told enough. They are responsible.

It’s time for conservatives to stop blaming a company name and start blaming the PEOPLE in charge.

Companies don’t kill markets and fortunes. PEOPLE kill markets and fortunes.

[aaCharley]

It wasn’t just that they bought Golden West, they were nutty enough to pay a large premium for it. that is an indication that they found no problems with the lending practices. That is why they continued them and changed Wachovia into the Golden West model of giving it away.

[Army Air Corps]

Here are some good articles.

This one from the 24 December 2008 edition of the New York Times. And this from the 30 June 2008 edition of Businessweek.

[piasa]

Billionaires Secretly Met in Aspen to Defeat Bush NewsMax.com ^ | 19 October 2004 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff Posted on ‎10‎/‎19‎/‎2004‎ ‎5‎:‎07‎:‎29‎ ‎PM by jstolarczyk Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2004 1:09 p.m. EDT Billionaires Secretly Met in Aspen to Defeat Bush In the days following the Democratic National Convention in Boston this past August, several billionaire Democratic activists secretly met at the famed Aspen Institute in Colorado. The purpose of their clandestine meeting was "to use their fortunes to engineer the defeat of President George W. Bush," ...Another billionaire who attended was John Sperling, founder of the online University of Phoenix. Also present were Herb and Marion Sandler from California. The couple founded Golden West Financial Corporation, a California bank reportedly worth $17 billion. (Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...