Fri, Sep 26, 2008 3:00pm ET

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In an NRO blog post, Krikorian asked if WaMu's diversity policy was "[c]ause" of bank's demise

Summary: In a blog post on National Review Online, Mark Krikorian asked if diversity policies touted by Washington Mutual, which was seized by federal regulators and sold to another bank on September 25, were the "[c]ause" of the bank's collapse.
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Posted by shaggles

It's those damn immigrants!  It's all their fault.  If they'd just stayed in their own countries all the jobs would've come to them anyway.

Posted by RABBITLUVR

God, I am ashamed to be Armenian-American today. It disgusts me to no end that we have a virulent racist such as Mark Krikorian in my community considering our history of being oppressed and savaged by bigots.

Posted by NiceguyEddie

Despicable.  And there will be no shortage of americans who will read that and nod their heads and say "Yep - that's it!"

Not deregulation.  Not reckless & unsustainable business practices.  But DIVERSITY.

Unbelievable.

Posted by tommy

Yes, and Lehmen Brothers collapsed because they gave away fresh donuts in their employee breakroom every morning.

Posted by peebs755 in reply to tommy

Really! And here I thought it was bad management. :)

Posted by ufleirx

And what would be the explaination for Bear Stearns, AIG, or Lehman?

This guy gives new meaning to the word douche.

Posted by ufleirx in reply to ufleirx

Sorry Tommy you beat me to the trigger and I had not refreshed my screen.

Posted by Brabantio

Doesn't Kathryn Jean Lopez have some sort of editorial control over what's posted there?  Did she read this and think something other than "My God that is racist"?

Posted by snoopy

There's that race baiting thing again. I swear, the righties really do have a hangup about minorities.

Posted by NiceguyEddie in reply to snoopy

Do you know how much BS I've gotten about the CRA from my (conservative) friends and families lately?  As if 30-year old legislation is somehow more relevant than what's happened in the last 15 - especially ridiculous since most of the banks that failed recently didn't even fall under CRA governance.  But the CRA benefited a few minority groups over the years, so therefore it MUST play some role.  And indeed it does, just a relatively minor one.  Esp cosidering the number of republican prsidents and congresses that never bothered to reform it further, if it was such risky legislation as their base claims.

Posted by snoopy in reply to NiceguyEddie

Eddy, to truly understand the conservative mind you have to go where they go to see what makes them tick. Take conservapedia, for instance...

Posted by eweston8542983 in reply to snoopy

So out of 1,959,240 views, 24,313 were not pathologically concerned about homosexuality &or closeted?

Posted by tippy

Irresponsible race-baiting, again.  When things start to look bad, the right wing always finds some sinister Others to blame for the problem.  Too bad it has worked so well for them so many times. 

Posted by jason10006

BofA and JP Morgan, who have been the "rescuer" banks on Wall Street, and Goldman and Morgan Stanley, the two surviving old-guard I-banks-turned-Banks, all have similar and agressive diversity programs in terms of lending and hiring.  So I guess they succeeded because of diversity, huh?

Posted by SueEld

WaMu went under because of poor management, not diversity. Nice Racism here.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/26/151545/710/630/611606

WaMu went under because the entire system is creating fear - with fear comes withdrawl - with withdrawl comes collapse...

Posted by magnolialover

Must be some sort of "uppity" minorities causing the failure of all of these banks. Of course, they always ignore the "minority" part of that. I'm more than willing to bet that the majority of WaMu's customers were of the majority population of the country and all. Meaning, us white folks. Or it could just be that, they were horrible as far as managing their bank goes. I'm betting on the bad management angle.

Posted by Blueneck

Concentrating on the demise of an individual bank, for whatever reason misses the point. Do these twits even have the vaguest idea of what Mortgage backed securities, pass-through participation certificates, collaterized mortgage obligations or mortgage derivatives are and how they have contributed to the crisis? This is junk that belongs in the vaults of those who created this financial toxic waste. Will the economy collapse if the taxpayer doesn’t bail these pirates out of the financial Superfund site they have created? No one knows. The real fear may be that if everyone loses assets that the rich may become poorer and the poor may become (proportionally) better off. This is what is unacceptable to a class that perceives itself as entitled to its ill gotten gains, and now expects its risks to be socialized. Diversity is behind any aspect of this? Hogwash.

Posted by nerzog

In my humble layman's opinion, this whole mess is the inevitable result of building an empire on paper wealth.  Wall Street has fostered an entire industry that creates nothing and exists for the sole purpose of generating more wealth for the wealthy by sucking money out of other people's business transactions.  It is an incestuous, parasitic, rancid cesspool of greed.  When you actually buy and sell debt as a commodity, is it really a surprise when it comes back around and bites you in the ass?

Again, just my opinion, but if we don't restore our manufacturing base, we will share the fate of every other great society that has disappeared into the dustbin of history.  Buying and selling money may be fun, but how long can it sustain our economy?  

Posted by wolf kotenberg

No. it was those economic geniuses that ran the bank.

Posted by jasmeandouble5791

they always ignore the "minority" part of that. I'm more than willing to bet that the majority of WaMu's customers were of the majority population of the country and all. Meaning, us white folks. Or it could just be that, they were horrible as far as managing their bank goes. from a bi guy FindBilover dotcom

Posted by jabowery9504

Replace taxes on economic activity and virtually all government expenditures with a citizens’ dividend funded from a use fee for the net, in-place liquidation value of property rights beyond those that an individual would successfully defend in the absence of government (home and tools/weapons) —a use-fee equal to the risk free interest rate on said in-place liquidation value.