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IndyMac Swift Boaters Strike Back!

Thursday, August 21, 2008 | 09:15 AM

in Corporate Management | Credit | Legal | Politics | Valuation

Question: How any idiots does it take to change a light bulb at IndyMac?
Answer: 51

>

This one is too good to pass up -- be sure you read the punch line after the excerpt via Reuters:

California's attorney general is reviewing a request by former employees of IndyMac Bancorp Inc to investigate whether a New York senator triggered the bank's collapse by releasing confidential information.

At issue is a much-publicized letter that Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, sent in June to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) and Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) questioning the company's ability to survive.

The FDIC took control of IndyMac on July 11 after depositors withdrew more than $1.3 billion over 11 days. It was the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history. At the time, OTS Director John Reich blamed Schumer's letter for causing the run on the bank.

In a letter to Attorney General Jerry Brown last week, 51 former IndyMac workers wrote: "From the day (Schumer's) letter was made public on June 26 until the closure of the bank, a run on the bank took place and the failure became inevitable."

Who is behind this "groundswell" of (former) IndyMac workers? It turns out that the employee letter was distributed to the media by CRC Public Relations -- yes, the group whose clients include the National Republican Congressional Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee.

And, CRC was the PR firm behind the company that published a book questioning 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's Vietnam service on a swift boat. Yes, those despicable, embarrassing festering boils on the Americans body politics: Liars, cheats & traitors all.

Let's review: It wasn't the conflicts of interest, the outright fraud, or management's rampant criminality that sent Indy Mac belly up. It wasn't losing nearly a billion dollars this year alone. It wasn't the share prices tumbling 87% in 2007, and then losing another 95% this year-to-date. And of course, the loss of ~$30 billion dollars had nothing to do with this.

It was the Senator's letter in June that was the cause of the collapse.

Man, these swift boat guys are a dangerous combination of rabidly partisan, utterly ethicless, economically clueless -- and about as dumb as lawn furniture. They make you proud to be an American.

UPDATE: August 21, 2008 10:24am

You either help the public get to the facts, and achieve an understanding closer to objective reality, or you do not. If you actively seek to muddy the waters, if you make false and/or unsubstantiated charges directly contradicted by the bulk of the evidence, you earn my ever lasting ire.

Instead of listening to rabid partisans, consider neutral organizations like Fact Check.org.

One last note: My politics are that of a moderate centrist, and I detest the partisan nonsense. Garbage comments will be deleted and banned with extreme prejudice.

Previously:
My Experience at Indy Mac: Fraud, Corruption, Criminality (July 2008)
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/07/appraisers-wows.html

Video: IndyMac CEO Interview on CNBC (September 2006)
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/07/video-indymac-c.html

Idiots Fiddle While Rome Burns (July 2008)
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/07/idiots-fiddle-w.html

Source:
California mulls probing senator over IndyMac crash
John Poirier
Reuters, Aug 20, 2008 6:51pm
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2045763020080820