Evening Wrap Up with Obama and a Collage of Stuff, including a Slideshow

obama and king abdullah II in jordan

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WAMU or Washington Mutual in trouble

I once worked for Washington Mutual, the mortgage portion to be precise, so it is not a surprised to see this bank being taken down by deliquent mortgages.

Washington Mutual Inc., the biggest U.S. savings and loan, reported a 3.3 billion second-quarter loss on uncollectible loans as a record number of borrowers were unable to keep up with mortgage payments.

The loss of $6.58 a share compared with net income of $830 million, or 92 cents a share, a year earlier, Seattle-based Washington Mutual said today in a statement. The company said mortgage-related losses through 2011 will be at the high end of its previous forecast of $12 billion to $19 billion.

Chief Executive Officer Kerry Killinger, 59, stripped of the chairman position last month, is facing increased pressure from investors after the stock dropped 86 percent over the past year and his peers from Citigroup Inc. and Wachovia Corp. were fired. The company, which has raised capital, cut employees and reduced the size of its home-lending business, increased provisions for loan losses 69 percent to $5.9 billion.

In the late 90s, early 00's this bank was heavy in the mortgage business. Bought out quite a few smaller banks throughout the United States, including PNC, which was a small regional bank in Illinois and opened up all these mortgage banking offices, only to end up closing them, along with many of the retail branches that WAMU opened.

Well, again as we saw IndyMac tank, keep an eye out on many of these banks. As Enron, who cooked the books for as long as they could, why not these banks? If the mortgage meltdown has taken IndyMac down, why not any other bank? Yeah, you can tell, I just don't trust them.

All of us should ask these questions. And even though FDIC is stating they don't foresee another IndyMac, who knows?

And while I am in a banking "bitchery" mood, good old Fannie and Freddie will not help any American, anytime soon.

Now we know why U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was reluctant to reveal to lawmakers last week the potential cost of the Bush administration's rescue plan for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It's going to be a mind-popping $25 billion over fiscal 2009 and 2010, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which released its estimate of the rescue plan Tuesday morning. Let's put that in perspective: $25 billion for two financial institutions compared with $125 billion for the entire S&L industry in 1989-1991? Ouch.

But, this being Washington, there's a catch. CBO Director Peter Orszag told reporters Tuesday that the plan could also cost nothing--or as much as $100 billion.

And who is going to pay for this? You got it? Good ol' us. 'nuff said.

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hardball on obama in the middle east

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Obama got a stylish 'ride' to the Jordan airport

Yes, the King, himself drove Obama to the tarmac with security whirling around. His ride?

Barack Obama got the ultimate ride to the airport here Tuesday night, personally driven by King Abdullah in the king's Mercedes 600.

Hey, when you are the KING, you can do that.

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Again, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, is talking 2010, too

Gordon Brown today paved the way for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, promising a "fundamental change" of mission in the first half of 2009.

In a Commons statement, the prime minister heaped praise on the work of British soldiers and insisted the security situation in Basra had been "transformed".

"We will continue to reduce the number of British troops in Iraq," Brown said.

"Just as last year we moved from combat to 'overwatch', we would expect a further fundamental change of mission in the first months of 2009 as we make the transition to a long term bilateral partnership with Iraq, similar to the normal relationships which our military forces have with other important countries in the region."

This bolsters Obama's 16 month plan of troop withdrawal from Iraq. This is important.

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moveon.org ad "timetable"

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John McCain's Neverending War

This video is by JedReport. It is nine minutes long, but extremely informative and to the point.



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and...

Obama vows to work for Mideast breakthrough...

Obama says committed to Iraq withdrawal timetable....

Citizens United to Release Anti-Obama Documentary....

Obama Press Conference in Jordan Video Here.....

Missed the Morning Brew? Here....

this is the real military excitement for obama....h/t al rodgers....



and the slideshow....



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