{"id":528974,"date":"2010-04-15T18:14:24","date_gmt":"2010-04-15T22:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011618330_wamucollapsehowmuchdidexecsknow.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-04-15T18:14:24","modified_gmt":"2010-04-15T22:14:24","slug":"wamu-collapse-how-much-did-execs-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/528974","title":{"rendered":"WaMu collapse: How much did execs know?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Execs\u2019 actions were evil<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor, The Times:<\/p>\n

In his column, \u201cWaMu\u2019s new line: Who knew?\u201d [NWWednesday, April 14], Danny Westneat asked whether former Washington Mutual CEO Kerry Killinger and other executives \u2014 who had the pedal to the metal right up to the point the WaMu bus flew off the cliff \u2014 were evil or just dumb.<\/p>\n

Lets not kid ourselves. Their acts were evil \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

How many kids will not go to college because the family\u2019s finances were decimated? How much sickness and disease is not being treated because people lost their health insurance, along with their job?<\/p>\n

How many kids\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dan Salins, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

To know or not to know<\/strong><\/p>\n

WaMu\u2019s Kerry Killinger claimed he did not know anything bad going on at the bank he headed, yet claimed he knew enough that \u201cWashington Mutual was very well positioned, with its capital and operating plan, to work itself through this financial crisis\u201d [\u201cEx-CEO tells Senate; WaMu got raw deal,\u201d page one, April 14].<\/p>\n

Have it both ways and earn millions?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mike Nakamura, Fall City<\/em><\/p>\n

Killinger\u2019s gall<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Killinger stated that his former corporation \u201cshould have been given a chance\u201d to turn things around [\u201cEx-WaMu execs defend bank\u2019s actions before failure,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s home mortgage holders who currently owe more on their mortgage than the current value of their home?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

We should all be vigilant and demand our congressional representatives ensure new legislation comes forth that protects us from these predatory criminals.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dan Corbitt, Mukilteo<\/em><\/p>\n

How sorry is he?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

The measure of his sorrow should be the level of restitution.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jan Hedrick, Renton<\/em><\/p>\n

Time to strengthen Wall Street reform, not weaken it<\/strong><\/p>\n

The reckless behavior of banks drove our economy off a cliff; and more infuriating is that they did this knowingly. [\u201cWaMu execs knew of danger,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Irene Jeon, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Execs\u2019 actions were evil Editor, The Times: In his column, \u201cWaMu\u2019s new line: Who knew?\u201d [NWWednesday, April 14], Danny Westneat asked whether former Washington Mutual CEO Kerry Killinger and other executives \u2014 who had the pedal to the metal right up to the point the WaMu bus flew off the cliff \u2014 were evil or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-528974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}