Execs’ actions were evil
Editor, The Times:
In his column, “WaMu’s new line: Who knew?” [NWWednesday, April 14], Danny Westneat asked whether former Washington Mutual CEO Kerry Killinger and other executives — who had the pedal to the metal right up to the point the WaMu bus flew off the cliff — were evil or just dumb.
Lets not kid ourselves. Their acts were evil — pure and simple. The magnitude of the pain and suffering Killinger and others caused is incalculable. Behind every one of those numbers on a spreadsheet is a real, live human being whose home was lost, job was terminated, retirement erased and future destroyed.
How many kids will not go to college because the family’s finances were decimated? How much sickness and disease is not being treated because people lost their health insurance, along with their job?
How many kids’ dreams and hopes for the future were snuffed out when they became homeless or realized they were at the mercy of a cruel and powerful economic machine fueled by greed from guys such as Killinger? The saddest part of this whole situation is that we will send some dumb kid who stole $20 from a 7-Eleven to prison; after contributing to the cumulative agony of millions of victims, Killinger will live out his years comfortably in his gated mansion.
— Dan Salins, Seattle
To know or not to know
WaMu’s Kerry Killinger claimed he did not know anything bad going on at the bank he headed, yet claimed he knew enough that “Washington Mutual was very well positioned, with its capital and operating plan, to work itself through this financial crisis” [“Ex-CEO tells Senate; WaMu got raw deal,” page one, April 14].
Have it both ways and earn millions?
— Mike Nakamura, Fall City
Killinger’s gall
Former WaMu CEO Kerry Killinger has the gall to sit before Congress and claim that the corporation he not so blindly drove into the ground was unfairly treated by federal banking regulators.
Killinger stated that his former corporation “should have been given a chance” to turn things around [“Ex-WaMu execs defend bank’s actions before failure,” seattletimes.com, April 13]. Evidently it was not soon enough, or with the necessary authority to prevent his $25 million severance parachute from floating into his pocket.
Clearly this fella is living on a different planet. How much of a chance did Killinger and his ilk give to the roughly 25 percent of this country’s home mortgage holders who currently owe more on their mortgage than the current value of their home?
The prisons in this country are full of individuals who claim to have been unfairly treated by some level of government. Hopefully, Attorney General Eric Holder and his team could find a few current federal statutes to apply to Killinger and his cronies, and have them join them.
We should all be vigilant and demand our congressional representatives ensure new legislation comes forth that protects us from these predatory criminals.
— Dan Corbitt, Mukilteo
How sorry is he?
So just how sorry is Kerry Killinger? Sorry enough to give some of his millions to aid the homeless? Sorry enough to pay back some of his defrauded customers?
The measure of his sorrow should be the level of restitution.
— Jan Hedrick, Renton
Time to strengthen Wall Street reform, not weaken it
The reckless behavior of banks drove our economy off a cliff; and more infuriating is that they did this knowingly. [“WaMu execs knew of danger,” page one, April 13]. Two years ago, the bankers on Wall Street made risky bets on exotic financial derivatives products such as credit default swaps and it helped to destroy the economy. Today, while the bonuses on Wall Street have recovered, the jobs and 401(k) s on Main Street have not.
Incredibly, the same Wall Street bankers and their clients plan to flood Washington next week in an effort to oppose reasonable regulation of bets on their risky derivatives. Until now, these products have been traded in secret, behind closed doors, and the bankers want to keep it that way. They intend to persuade the Senate to add sweeping exceptions to proposed reforms in order to keep more than half of all derivatives trades in the shadow markets rather than on open exchanges.
That is not good enough. As Wall Street reform is considered this month on the Senate floor, Sen. Maria Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray should oppose derivatives loopholes and other efforts by the Wall Street bankers to weaken reform.
— Irene Jeon, Seattle