‘The Reckoning’ takes on Washington Mutual
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If you missed it, Jim Rainey had a piece in Sunday’s L.A. Times about that New York Times series ‘The Reckoning.’ L.A. Land readers may recall that we had posts on the part entitled ‘White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire’ and the subsequent White House apoplexy.
More interesting to me than a rehash of that dust-up was the latest installment of the series that ran Dec. 27 when I was off, ‘By Saying Yes, WaMu Built an Empire on Shaky Loans.’
The lead:
SAN DIEGO — As a supervisor at a Washington Mutual mortgage processing center, John D. Parsons was accustomed to seeing baby sitters claiming salaries worthy of college presidents, and schoolteachers with incomes rivaling stockbrokers’. He rarely questioned them. A real estate frenzy was under way and WaMu, as his bank was known, was all about saying yes. Yet even by WaMu’s relaxed standards, one mortgage four years ago raised eyebrows. The borrower was claiming a six-figure income and an unusual profession: mariachi singer. Mr. Parsons could not verify the singer’s income, so he had him photographed in front of his home dressed in his mariachi outfit. The photo went into a WaMu file. Approved.
I don’t know how I can still be surprised by anything, but that one was a real head-shaker to me.
-- Lauren Beale
Thoughts? Comments?
