Saturday, July 12, 2008

IndyMac

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-indymac12-2008jul12,0,6071779.story

IndyMac, which once employed 10,000, fell prey to a classic run on the bank, and regulators singled out Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) as having helped to fuel massive withdrawals. On June 26, Schumer said in letters to the FDIC, the OTS and two other federal agencies that IndyMac might have "serious problems" with its loan holdings.
"I am concerned that IndyMac's financial deterioration poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers," he wrote. The bank "could face a failure if prescriptive measures are not taken quickly."
That public warning prompted depositors to pull $1.3 billion out of accounts between June 27 and Thursday.
"This institution failed today due to a liquidity crisis," John M. Reich, director of the OTS, said at a news conference Friday afternoon. "Although this institution was already in distress, the deposit run pushed IndyMac over the edge."
Schumer said in a statement that the cause of IndyMac's failure was "poor and loose lending practices" that should have been prevented by more active regulation. Later, a Schumer spokesman said: "Mr. Reich, a political appointee, should be spending less time playing politics and more time doing his job."



Schumer should be drawn and quartered, his statement was ill advised as it is, but his arrogant comment about Reich not playing politics was just crap. What in his statement was politics?

Schumer's spokesman just makes him seem childish and ignorant, he made a stupid comment and then tries to minimize it by pointing a finger somewhere else.