About book The Lost Bank: The Story Of Washington Mutual-The Biggest Bank Failure In American History (2012)
Interesting but not a page-turner. A fairly well writen story of a local icon which unlike Starbucks, Amazon and Microsoft,failed through growth. Lots of facts I didn't know and a view into Washington (DC)regulatory politics we don't often see on the Left coast, but not really new ground. We've heard this story too many times before--fair-haired darling of Wall Street starts to believe his own press and is forced to prop up earnings by taking bigger & bigger risks. That said, it is a competent job of investigative reporting with some startling moments--like the random focus group of 10 people not one of whom could explain what kind of morgage they had or the terms, even with the statement in their hands. It still amazes me how many people it took to pull off this debacle--borrowers, lenders, appraisers, investment bankers, regulators, investors, etc. I would include auditors in this list, but the sad fact is that hardly any of WAMU's mortgages which were traunched & packaged into securities were actually audited--shouldn't that have bothered someone? Yes, I know, easy to say afterwards, but my credentials are that I was the "fool" making extra payments on my mortgage to pay it off early when everyone else appears to have been "taking advantage of the system" by getting home equity loans and interest only refi's. Not that I saw the financeal crisis coming--I didn't. I just fundamentally distrust debt in all it's forms. Seems like I'm still pretty much alone in that view even today. Often when there is a complex news story that arrives in bits and pieces and is difficult to understand, I say that I will wait for the book to come out. This book may not be THE book about the financial crisis/recession that started in 2008 but it is an excellent introduction. Grind has put together an understandable and compelling account of the failure of Washington Mutual (WaMu) Bank. She paints vivid pictures of some of the personalities of involved, as well as the corporate culture of the bank. And she leaves the reader to puzzle out what toxic blend of who’s ego, greed, or incompetence was the catalyst and why nobody seemed to able to right the ship.
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A great complimentary book to "Too Big To Fail" (not the same author just same genre).
—thesims1987
A book about the failure of Wamu. Interesting mostly if you know about banking.
—kris_merie
Although depressing, enjoyed this. Good, local explanation of bank crisis.
—bili
Crushingly dry, only got through two chapters.
—littleangel13x
