What gives the US Government the right not to maximize a solvent company's shareholders value during a forced sale? The notion of completely forgetting about JPM's prior lowball offer to purchase WM for $8 a share makes no sense, considering the FDIC sold the entire brand for $1.9B, less than 1% of its true value.
The entire process seems suspect, and all eyes lead to Hank Paulson, the one who masterminded the entire relief package which never considered extending credit to WM. The examiner should ask:
(1) How did Paulson come up with the sale price or, prelim sale price?
(2) Why did Hank not include WM in TARP, yet not hesitate to finance $10B to his alma mater GS. Remember, GS had to convert from IB to Merchant, literally in 24 hours to receive TARP. Yet the largest Merchant, WM, was excluded.
(3) Why did Hank decide closing the 'Nations Largest Thrift' made more sense than extending TARP and using the tax refunds to wipe out all the toxic debt. If WM received what Hanks alma mater got, it would have had positive cash flow
($4B in cash + $5.6B in tax refunds for '08 + $10B TARP + $2B in interest income from deposits + $21.6B less ($19B) in write offs = $2.6B in positive cash flow.
So, why did Hank decide closing the bank, destroying billions in wealth & creating unnecessary panic in the financial system was the better choice.
(4) Why did Hank not allow the bank to liquidate strategic assets (i.e.: Florida and California markets for starters) to ease any concern or stress on the FDIC. The FDIC had a surplus of $787B raised of TAXPAYER dollars, of which only $250B was allocated in the crisis. The remaining cash was sitting idle, so the "fear of additional bank run" was made up, there was no imminent crisis.
When are we going to hold our politicians accountable. Not many of you know the second ammendment, but if you watched Judge Napolitano's show over the weekend on FOX, he analyzed the original founders intention and meaning. When the government becomes out of control, and there is clear neglect of the law, the people have the right to question and bear arms against the government.
I am not by any means endorsing the use of weaponry against the government, but want to convey the government is out of control and clearly WE THE PEOPLE MUST STOP IT.