FDIC, OTS Not Cooperating with Media Investigations
The Puget Sound Business Journal has done yeoman’s work investigating the storied history of WaMu. (See The Rise & Fall of WaMu and The Last Days of WAMU).
I just found their most recent work, The fight for WaMu documents. It details some of the more absurd redactions that were made to the documents they requested of the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regarding communications between WaMu’s regulators.
The redactions were rather absurd:
And my personal favorite:
So much for more transparency under the new Adminsitration . . .
>
Previously:
The Rise & Fall of WaMu (February 2nd, 2009)
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/02/the-rise-fall-of-wamu/
The Last Days of WAMU (October 1st, 2009)
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/10/the-last-days-of-wamu/
Source:
The fight for WaMu documents
Kirsten Grind
December 11, 2009, 2:28pm PST
http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/2009/12/the_fight_for_wamu_documents.html
December 14th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Probably a Fifth Amendment Issue for the bureaucrats.
December 14th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Somebody borrowed the CIA highlighter.
December 14th, 2009 at 8:32 am
why did these ‘Environmentalists’ (Team 44), even, waste the electrons, or, worse, the Trees, transmitting this G*rbage?
maybe, re: “Change”, the American People will re-learn the old adage: “if you want something done right, you’ll do it yourself”
OOC, how do the O-pologists spin this type thing?
December 14th, 2009 at 8:40 am
transperency you can believe in…
@TZ- the cia’s highlighter, that’s funny
December 14th, 2009 at 8:46 am
This a banking scandal. Not national security.
Why the blackouts?
December 14th, 2009 at 9:08 am
The Bush/Cheney administration hired people who share the same ideology. They had 8 years to fill gov’t positions with their people.
How long do you think it will take the Obama administration to turn that around?
President Obama is not in charge of FOIA requests. I’ll bet a lot of people working in the OTS and OCC are bushies.
If we want change faster, the people will have to organize and create a pressure that is strong enough to push back the corporatocracy created by that revolving door between corporations and the gov’t.
December 14th, 2009 at 9:14 am
“…The history of the present King… is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object, the establishment of an absolute (hot-house of provokation and abuse)… To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world:”
*He has refused his Assent to Laws…wholesome and necessary for the public good…
*He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people… unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation… a right inestimable to them…
*He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures…
.
December 14th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Jamie needed deposits, WaMu had a ton of them, leaving quickly. The stories you posted last week showed that they were under a huge run. They were surviving it too.
FDIC, OTS, and COC’s job is above all, to prevent runs. Preventing bank runs and Transparency are not on the same page.
Would the run have continued? Or would it have subsided?
WaMu is a lot more interesting that anyone ever gave it credit for.
Then again, it could simply be that the stodgy old big banker types portrayed in their commercials in underwear did not like it.
December 14th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Must be a mistake. Those are the JFK memos from the CIA.
December 14th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Lack of transparency,
Compromised public officials,
Quid pro quo financial support in exchange for defective financial reform that preserves the status quo,
Political theatrics with bank CEOs today to fool the public…………
It is great day to be a member of the American Elite!
December 14th, 2009 at 9:55 am
>> O-pologists
MEH, not sure if I qualify within your definition. (I do defend Obama regularly.) But, I think the Dems (at least in Congress) will lose the independent vote — and the election — if they continue the opaqueness.
December 14th, 2009 at 10:04 am
And then there’s this:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/12/yes-obama-is-getting-serious-about-banks-he-is-now-calling-them-bad-names.html
December 14th, 2009 at 10:05 am
…which is pretty much just what bsneath just said.
December 14th, 2009 at 10:14 am
The government’s hyper-secrecy regarding financial information is a pretty good indicator that it’s operating outside the law. If you want to get to the bottom of the criminal enterprise, you’re supposed to follow the money. Only, in this instance, the criminals will not allow that to happen. It’s brazen and bald-faced, too. Where in the F is law enforcement? Not one investigation?
We’ve more than lost control of our government.
December 14th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Whoa, wait . . . the media are investigating something?
December 14th, 2009 at 10:41 am
I sure wish they’d get busy investigating something more meaningful than the lost cause that was WAMU. Part of the slant on this story is that it somehow shouldn’t have been taken down by the FDIC. That’s absurd, it was a time bomb waiting to go off. Waiting would have meant much larger losses.
With that said, I’m not familiar with the specifics here, and I’m not an expert in the law. And given the blatant obfuscation that is being done by the govt there’s probably some fire to this smoke.
December 14th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Obama: ‘Fat-cat’ bankers owe help to U.S. taxpayers
“We were there for them,” Summers said on ABCsThis Week With George Stephanopoulos. “And the banks need to do everything they can to be sure they’re there for customers across this country.”
The meeting is nothing more than “political theater,” said Virginia-based banking consultant Bert Ely. He said “reckless lending” also contributed to last year’s financial crisis, and banks across the country are already under pressure from local examiners about making too many “risky loans.”
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2009-12-13-obama-bankers-small-business_N.htm
December 14th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Obama doesn’t really seem interested in undoing any of the grabs for power by the executive branch by the Bush administration (and starting back to Nixon). Executive privilege this, executive privilege that.
December 20th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
[...] this story of censorship paints a different picture…literally: From [...]