When Killinger took over from Pepper, he adopted a strategy of acquisitions that may, depending on your age, bring to mind the strategy behind First Citiwide Change Bank: “All the time, our customers ask us, ‘How do you make money doing this?’ The answer is simple: Volume. That’s what we do.” Continue reading The True Story of Washington Mutual’s Implosion, from Ground Zero
Raha was right, then, to worry about nothing going wrong. He was also correct about Boeing ramping up production, banks remaining under stress to recapitalize under more stringent FDIC regulation, and real estate not bouncing back until at least mid-2011. The gold bubble has yet to pop, interest rates have yet to rise (though any deflationary spiral has been mild), and delayed foreclosures are still depressing market values. Continue reading Before Umpqua’s “Navigating 2012,” a Course Check on 2011
This morning’s key pronouncement from Raha–“What we need now is just a few months of nothing going wrong,” a big laugh line as it turns out–contrasted strongly with the suppressed panic of the last big economic forecast I attended in December of 2008. The mood now is one of growing impatience, having seen the worst, with the progress of recovery–though all the panelists were careful to emphasize that patience will be exactly what’s required. Continue reading “Financial Forecast 2011” Recap: We’re Getting Slightly Better All the Time
