Is this one of the most extraordinary government actions ever?
A couple of days ago I blogged about how the FDIC was not talking to WaMu about taking them over. That post looks really stupid now.
But then the WSJ reports this:
WaMu's deal team, including Mr. Fishman, left New York on Thursday night and caught a plane back to Seattle, not knowing that the company was about to be taken over by the OTS and sold to J.P. Morgan.
I got a question: is this for real? Is this how the American government now acts?
I would prefer think my post was wrong than the American Government acts in arbitrary capricious ways. If the FDIC took over WaMu whilst the executives were on the plane without discussing the true liquidity situation of the bank first then I fear for all American capitalism.
So - for the moment - I will hope the WSJ story is wrong. I have been wrong plenty of times - so that is not something I should criticise sharply. But this is an intellectual puzzle: what did the FDIC tell WaMu and when? Why did it decide to take over WaMu now?
More is sure to come in the press so I am loathe to speculate. But this is one of the more interesting intellectual puzzles of the past few years.
John