The Lost Bank

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Based on reporting for which the author was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Gerald Loeb Award, this book traces the rise and spectacular fall of Washington Mutual.During the most dizzying days of the financial crisis, Washington Mutual, a bank with hundreds of billions of dollars in its coffers, suffered a crippling bank run The story of its final, brutal collapse in the autumn of 2008, and its controversial sale to JPMorgan Chase, is an astonishing account of how one bank lost itself to greed and mismanagement, and how the entire financial industry and even the entire country lost its way as well Kirsten Grind s The Lost Bank is a magisterial and gripping account of these events, tracing the cultural shifts, the cockamamie financial engineering, and the hubris and avarice that made this incredible story possible The men and women who become the central players in this tragedy the regulators and the bankers, the home buyers and the lenders, the number crunchers and the shareholders are heroes and villains, perpetrators and victims, often switching roles with one another as the drama unfolds As a reporter at the time for the Puget Sound Business Journal, Grind covered a story set far from the epicenters of finance and media It happened largely in places such as the suburban homes of central California and the office buildings of Seattle, but Grind covered the story from the beginning, and the clarity and persistence of her reporting earned her many awards, including being named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Gerald Loeb Award She takes readers into boardrooms and bedrooms, revealing the power struggles that pitted regulators at the Office of Thrift Supervision and the FDIC against one another and the predatory negotiations of investment bankers and lawyers who enriched themselves during the bank s rise and then devoured the decimated bank in its final days Written as compellingly as the finest fiction, The Lost Bank makes it clear that the collapse of Washington Mutual was not just the largest bank failure in American history It is a story of talismanic qualities, reflecting the incredible rise and the precipitous collapse of not only an institution but of trust, fortunes, and the marketplaces for risk across the world. New Read [ The Lost Bank ] By [ Kirsten Grind ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr Being a ten year veteran of WaMu and having spoken with many people in many different parts of the bank since it s failure, having followed much of what has been written about the events and my own experiences, I have to say that this book tracks very closely with what I was able to piece together as to the eventual failure of WaMu In this, it appears that it is very reliable and accurate with only very minor nuances that maybe were not fully fleshed out or understood Given my knowledge of the Being a ten year veteran of WaMu and having spoken with many people in many different parts of the bank since it s failure, having followed much of what h...Mrs Grind was originally on the right track with her research back in the ealy days of the WAMU saga but somewhere along the way, she forgot to include all the juicy bits of the story, i.e corporate espionage and corrupt collusion between Jamie Dimon and Sheila Bair leading up to the takedown of WAMU by the FDIC and subsequent overnight firesale single bidder auction of WAMU assets to JPM for fractions of a penny on the dollar Washington Mutual was a solivent bank at the time i...Tragic tale, particularly when you knew the players Great insight to what was going on behind the scenes in Washington, but so sad see all the components that led to the dominos falling and the downfall of a great company..This book is not for everyone, but was extremely interesting to me because for eight years I worked for one of Washington Mutual s subsidiaries The decision of WaMu to sell off all ancillary businesses I changed jobs, following the sold off subsidiary under new ownership was prelude to the giant series of missteps resulting in WaMu being the largest bank...Good book I always love to hear the inside stories of these colossal business failures After reading the book it seems pretty obvious to me that there is an east coast bias when it comes to banking You can t help but feel like Paulson was taking care of his buddies at AIG, Citi, and Meryl but let WAMU eat it I hate when the government gets to pick the winners and the losers Either let them all fail or bail them all out What it really proves to me is that any institution could fail and the Good book I always love to hear the inside stories of these colossal business failures After reading the book it seems pretty obvious to me that...By Antony CurrieAll financial institutions not just those deemed too big to fail need strong regulatory oversight That is one lesson of Kirsten Grind s new book about the demise of Washington Mutual, The Lost Bank Grind, who covered the bank for Seattle s Puget Sound Business Journal before moving to the Wall Street Journal, offers decent coverage of the bank s demise in September 2008 But her incredibly well researched account of how the bank got there iscaptivating The story be By Antony CurrieAll financial institutions not just those deemed too big to fail need strong regulatory oversight That is one lesson of Kirsten Grind s new book about the demise of Washington Mutual, The Lost Bank Grind, who covered the bank for Seattle s Puget Sound Business Journal before moving to the Wall Street Journal, offers decent coverage of the bank s demise in September 2008 But her incredibly well researched account of how the bank got there iscaptivating The story begins in 1981 when lawyer Lou Popper, one of the firm s directors, reluctantly agreed to run the Savings and Loan after it almost imploded Over the next nine years he rebuilt WaMu s reputation and restored employees pride largely by being a principled, hands on chief who mucked in with the workers and stuck to the basics of banking.His hand picked successor, Kerry Killinger, seemed just...Such an interesting look at WaMu s bank failure easy to read, yet informative.It s hard not to conclude that Washington Mutual was a sacrificial lamb to help the Bush Administration pass TARP, the 700 billion fund that gifted money to favored financial institutions Granted, WAMU probably deserved to fail based on the horrible lending strategies of long time CEO Kerry Killinger Killinger took over WAMU and led it on a rapid expansion program making it one of the largest retail banks in the country But, at some point in the history of this Seattle institution, Killinger It s hard not to conclude that Washington Mutual was a sacrificial lamb to help the Bush Administration pass TARP, the 700 billion fund that gifted money to favored financial institutions Granted, WAMU probably deserved to fail based on the horrible lending strategies of long time CEO Kerry Killinger Killinger took over WAMU and led it on a rapid expansion program making it one of the largest retail banks in the country But, at some point in the history of this Seattle institution, Killinger reached his level of incompetence There is also the suggestion in the book that he went middle aged crazy, shucking his high school sweetheart for a new wife and changing from his historically austere lifestyle to aexpansive, expensive way of living which included a second home, a boat and private jets Killinger had fair warning from long time ...This book is not for everyone But if you re at all interested in learningabout the 2008 financial crisis, or enjoy stories about the rise and fall of organizations, or just have a fading memory of WaMu and wondered whatever happened to those guysthen give this one a shot.For those of us in California, many of us remember Washington Mutual branches opening up seemingly everywhere not too long agookay maybe it was a long time ago remember free checking accountsthat was WaMu B This book is not for everyone But if you re at all interested in learningabout the 2008 financial crisis, or enjoy stories about the rise and fall of organizations, or just have a fading memory of WaMu and wondered whatever happened to those guysthen give this one a shot.For those of us in California, many of us remember Washington Mutual branches opening up seemingly everywhere not too long agookay maybe it was a long time ago remember free checking accountsthat was WaMu But that s all a memory now How this relatively small, regional bank from the Pacific Northwest where executives dressed up for Halloween parties and customers were gre...Interesting but not a page turner A fairly well writen story of a local icon which unlike Starbucks,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 compete Interesting but not a page turner A fairly well writen story of a local icon which unlike Starbucks,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...

The Lost Bank
  • English
  • 16 December 2017
  • Hardcover
  • 400 pages
  • 1451617925
  • Kirsten Grind
  • The Lost Bank