http://www.politicalcortex.com/story/2008/4/20/195516/992
By Bob Kendall
04/20/2008 07:55:16 PM EST
The Seattle Times April 16 headline read:
"Shareholders' Fury Forces Policy Changes at WAMU".
Underneath this headline describing the rage shareholders of stock in
Wa****ngton Mutual Bank felt as they saw their investment in one of the
biggest banks in the U.S.A. collapse, the article continued to explain
how this devastating economic meltdown shattered their faith in
Wa****ngton Mutual Chief Executive Officer Kerry Killinger.
But before Killinger announced another huge loss of $19 billion in
more bad loans, Alan Henry, a retired radio executive, blasted
Killinger's record as Wa****ngton Mutual's CEO. Directing his diatribe
to the bank's stockholders, he reminded them, "You're the owners, not
them (referring to the bank's executives). They're employees."
The collapse of the phony U.S. housing boom resulted because banks
made loans to people with terrible credit records and income that was
totally inadequate to pay for any increase in interest on their
mortgages.
Wa****ngton Mutual's first quarter (2008) loss is $1.4 billion. The
loss in the final quarter of 2007 was $1.9 billion.
Thousands of Wa****ngton Mutual employees are losing the jobs. The
quarterly dividend is 1 cent a share of Wa****ngton Mutual stock.
Back in the heyday of vaudeville if a performer acted as horribly as
Killinger has as CEO of Wa****ngton Mutual, the theater audiences threw
things at that individual. It is a good thing that this CEO only had
verbal blasts directed against him for the horrifying Wa****ngton
Mutual collapse.
Alan Henry laid it on the line to Killinger. Henry said, "What you've
got to do is what some real men do - real men. When you face a
situation like this, you stand down. I ask you, out of good judgment,
to stand down."
But an employee placed the blame for Wa****ngton Mutual's collapse
squarely on Stephen Rotella, president and chief operating officer
since 2005. He claimed that under Rotella's leader****p Wa****ngton
Mutual's loan consultants were paid more for writing sub prime
mortgages than for safer, fixed rate loans.
In the Seattle Time article he lashed out against Rotella, "This man
(Rotella) has driven the company to the edge of bankruptcy and he
should be fired and his bonuses should be taken back from him."
There were 2,500 people listening intently to this man speaking with
an angry, quivering voice as he succinctly explained one reason why
Wa****ngton Mutual is losing billions.
Why on earth there is a bonus plan for such colossal failure at
Wa****ngton Mutual is disgusting. Nevertheless, the executive bonuses
are fought for, which is tantamount to funding failure.
The greed which became "good" to the White House resident George Bush
has become "God" while the middle class in the U.S.A. is being
demolished through the outsourcing of jobs to China, India, Mexico,
Bangladesh - anywhere on earth where big business can make more money
with cheap labor, and no employee (labor) fair play rules, while some
privileged U.S. CEO's are raking in millions.
Take the Mobil-Exxon CEO who retired with almost $400 million, plus $1
million a year as a consultant, as well as the use of the company jet
while his country club dues were paid.
Most of the Exxon-Mobil oil comes from Nigeria. The New York Times
re****ted that 80% of the oil wealth goes to 1% of the Nigerian
population. Nigerians suffer from dysentery because of lack of clean
water, and they are ill fed without adequate food for their existence.
Yes, there are Nigerian rebels who are demanding what they insist is a
fair distribution of their nation's valuable assets. No doubt they
will be labeled terrorists by those benefiting from this Nigerian rip-
off.
As the food, travel and every commodity connected to oil skyrockets,
the U.S. oil barons descended on Congress, demanding that the tax
benefits they are gifted with be continued.
Health insurance is not available to 45 million Americans. Meanwhile
jobs continue vani****ng to India, China, Mexico and third world
nations. Slave labor is providing Wall Street with much of its
wealth.
Labor must compete with employees who knowingly have hired cheap labor
from "illegals" to make added profits beyond what they would have to
pay to U.S. citizens.
As we approach another election, we can count on things not only
continuing as they have in the past with lobbyists for pharmaceutical
giants continuing their full court press.
We can also count on the war machine generating continuing billions
while costly conflicts like Afghanistan.
This conflict resulted in large measure from Reagan's conduct in
helping the Taliban to assume power, while Bush now seeks to remove
the same Taliban that the U.S. earlier trained to fight.
The $27.5 million embassy that the U.S. built in Iraq, the largest
U.S. embassy in the world, provides graphic proof that the U.S. plans
to stay in Iraq.
But the best laid plans of mice and men can fail.
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