Over 80% of the content of the email messages they received was blacked out. Guess we won't be hearing about the content of those emails in his book.
Given the fact that Wamu was still rated as "well-capitalized", including a 7 billion dollar cash injection from a private equity firm just a few months earlier, when the FDIC was ordered to seize them by Paulson and sell their over 300 billion in assets to JPMorganChase for 1.9 billion, this was one of the biggest bank robberies in the history of finance. All in the name of making sure one of the "too big to fails" didn't fail and to cover up their losses.
That's ok. Just tell the Wamu equity holders and bond holders who lost billions in this backdoor bailout of JPMC that it was just their time to "take one for the team" and to speed up the recovery.
Tell it to the millions who lost their jobs and savings to help speed up the recovery of the major financials "left standing".
Tell it to the US taxpayer who had to pay billions to foreign banks to bail them out too.
Don't worry Paulson. You sure sped up the recovery. Your legacy is protected. Just keep spewing out your works of fiction.
I contend that a major problem has been blind greed at the top. I have listed CEO salaries from “Forbes CEO Compensation” for 5/3/07, 4/30/08 and 4/22/09. Salaries are in millions of dollars.
In 07, Countrywide’s CEO salary was $142 million, in Aug. 07 it was in trouble, in Jan. 08 it was in more trouble, in April 08 the salary was dropped to a mere $103M, and in July 08 it was acquired by Bank of America. In noticeable contrast for the 3 years was BoA CEO salary: $100M, $20M, and $12.5M.
On the other hand WaMu from 07 to 08 dropped from $23M to $5M. And AIG from $18M to $11, and currently $0. Another loser was Merrill Lynch, $36M to $16M. In contrast, Lehman Brothers rose from $52M to $72M in April 08. Do you think maybe the London bankers in summer of 08 took a look and said “what is with this greedy axxhole?” And what about Morgan Stanley, $7M to $18M.
Now lets take a look at the survivers. See BoA and AIG above. Wells Fargo $72M, $13M and $1.4. JP Morgan Chase $57M, $21M and $8.5M. Bank of NY $19M, $14M and $5M. Citigroup $18M, $1M and $3M.
In virtually all cases those who kept their high salaries did not keep their companies. The notable exception, Oh my Gosh, was Goldman Sachs $37M to $74M, and most recently $26 million. Can anyone explain this? Missing from the top 14 in 07 and 08 was Hudson City Bankcorp which in 09 paid it’s CEO $42 million. Any information on them?
I will be interested to read the interpretations of others, but to me it seems those who cut early survived. Those who stayed greedy did not, with one notable exception!!