Monthly Archives: September 2008

Requiem for WAMU: Gone the Way of Namu and Shamu*

September 28, 2008

At Griz’ insistence, I’m going to write about my personal sadness over the seizure Thursday by federal regulators of Washington Mutual Bank and the concurrent firesale of WAMU’s assets to JP Morgan Chase.  I am not an economist and have never worked in banking or any part of the financial sector, so much of what I have to say may sound extremely naive if not downright stupid. Oh, too bad – what are blogs for (especially one that not many read anyway). Disclaimer: I have been a customer of Washington Mutual (WAMU) since the days when they were a lowly Seattle savings bank.  I also have financial interests with Chase Bank. I hold no stock in either institution. It appears I may suffer some inconvenience, but I will take no personal loss as the result of this seizure and sale. I’m just a customer – one who admittedly used Washington Mutual primarily as a cash-flow utility, and sometimes a mortgage-bank. I’ve rarely rested any significant assets there; although, I did purchase a small certificate of deposit or two back in the day when there was some profitability in doing so.

WAMU was founded the same year Washington State was granted statehood – 1889. That’s a long history of good business down the tubes. Survival through the Great Depression was probably the result of staying an in-state savings bank.  WAMU’s transition to commercial banking and interstate expansion began in the 1980′s.

I always liked Washington Mutual – it was a bank with heart. That was particularly true before their expansion, but even afterward, the WAMU branch employees were always friendly to all customers – whether the customer owned five accounts and a big mortgage, or just one little free checking account. Those free checking accounts (free even with insignificant min. balances) will undoubtedly be a thing of the past with Chase Bank, who from my experience is very fee-oriented.  It’s not something us “more-fortunates” think about, but those monthly, per check and high NSF fees deprive low-income citizens from bank accounts – they just can’t afford them. A  minimum balance of even $500 is out of their reach.

I’ve also always thought the Washington Mutual Tower – WAMU’s former headquarters building is one of Seattle’s most distinctive.  The 55-story building is the second-highest in Seattle’s skyline. With a bluish-green tint, it rises over the “Emerald City” to a spire that resembles the tin-woodman’s hat.

That Washington Mutual became known as WAMU a few years ago tickled me, too – something Pacific Northtwesty about the abbreviation, on a par with Namu and Shamu, the first pair of captured orcas (killer whales) that launched the whole trained-orca entertainment business. (I consider training large sea mammals to entertain tourists only slightly less humane than making 95% ARMs on $350,000 homes for middle-income families who leverage their 401K’s for a down payment and haven’t a snowball’s-chance-in-hell of maintaining the monthly payments once the interest rate goes up a single point.)

*Although Namu and Shamu were the first male and female orcas captured for human entertainment and both are long deceased; Sea World now owns the trademark names Namu and Shamu and uses these names for generations of captive, trained orcas.

Greed by WAMU management set up the bank’s decline. During the height of the real-estate boom and sub-prime mortgage frenzy, you couldn’t walk into the branch to get cash without someone (even the tellers) trying to sell you a less-expensive mortgage once they identified you as a “valued” customer. Two weeks ago WAMU changed CEO’s and put itself up for sale. JP Morgan/Chase was one of four interested buyers. JP Morgan was also in negotiations with WAMU last year, but backed out of a merger when the WAMU stock was at $10 per share. Last week WAMU’s price per share last week fluctuated between $1.23 and $3 as hopes of a federal bail-out rose and fell.

Here’s my totally fictional conjecture of what finally killed the WAMU whale – why WAMU got seized rather than bailed-out:

Treasury Sec. Paulson: Congress isn’t going for it, Mr. President.
Dubya: I don’t get it. Look at all the money we’ve already spent bailing, what’s the big deal?
Paulson: They want oversight to see how we use the money. They want to restrict golden parachutes for bank executives.
Dubya: We can’t have that – we’ve gotta protect those banker boys, we owe ‘em. What can we do here to push things along? Maybe we need to kick up a little dust.
Paulson: I suppose we could actually send the regulators in and sieze one of the banks that’s on the brink.
Dubya: How do we do that? Are there any particular one’s that would be a good example. Any in Democrats’ states? He, he.
Paulson: Well, Washington Mutual’s the biggest, wouldn’t hurt to get it out of the bail-out anyway. That way if we have to compromise on the total bail-out package – WAMU’s big lump will already be out of the figures. It’s a Seattle based bank – Democratic governor and senators (all women by the way), majority of their congressmen are dems, too.
Dubya: Sounds good – that’ll surprise those Dem bitches. So we just march in and take over – federal employees grab up the bank like evidence in a drug raid or something?  What do we do with it then?
Paulson:  Ideally, we only have to hold it until we find a buyer for the residue. We’ll just be selling the assets. No one will buy the bad mortgages though, we’ll be stuck with those, you understand.
Dubya and Paulson together smiling: SOMEONE ELSE’S PROBLEM!
Dubya: How do we find these potential buyers – can we let them know ahead of time so they’re ready to take it off our hands?
Paulson: We could pre-arrange the sale – so the buyer just takes over as soon as the regulators seize the bank.  JPMorgan/Chase has been interested in WAMU for a long time – they want to expand onto the west coast. WAMU’s got lots of branches out there and stuff. Chase’s people have already been making inquiries to our people. They don’t really want WAMU rescued and off the market – they are so close to getting their hands on it.
Dubja: JP Morgan/Chase, huh? Yeah, I like them boys. Wasn’t it them that helped us out with Bear-Stearns? Let’s get them boys in here and see how much they really wanna pay for WAMU.

And the rest is sad history.  In June 2008, Washingotn Mutual’s assets were listed at over $200 billion.  On September 25, 2008, JP Morgan/Chase purchased  WAMU’s assets for $1.9 billion. (Incidentally, WAMU’s recently hired CEO, Brooklyn banker Alan Fishman was coincidentally in New York during the FDIC/JP Morgan negotiations and subsequent seizure of WAMU. He will walk away with approximately $20 million for 2 weeks’ work – combined signing incentive, year’s salary and, of course,  golden parachute).

Note to my blogging coach smays.com: If the conjecture in this post inadvertently touches close enough to the truth that I wake up Monday morning with Homeland Security on my front porch; or if I wind up having my taxes audited for the next 30-years for no particular reason, I will never forgive you.

By Trish | Posted in Hermit's Rants, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments off

City Savvy/Country Savvy: A Bit of Both is Best

September 25, 2008

Even though I love nature and now live in the forest, I was raised, educated and spent much of my “employed-by-someone-else” working life in fairly large cities – primarily Seattle (with a little California and East Coast thrown in). There’s a significant advantage in this – I have no innate city fear. But I don’t [...]

Dances with Bears, Part 2: "Call the Sheriff, That Bear’s Illegally Parked."

September 22, 2008

My good-neighbor policy toward our local black bears is not without detractors. We once called our closest neighbor to tell her of a sow (Mom Bear) with cub toward the back part of our property. Knowing the neighbor sometimes walks with her dogs near the bears’ location, we wanted her to avoid the area until the bear moved on. The neighbor’s first reaction was “Did you call the sheriff?” – something that never even occurred to us. Was the Sheriff supposed to arrest the bear, or just issue a citation? We provided the neighbor with some bear education, but I don’t think she was listening. She was scared.

News stories of “troublesome” black bears surface every couple of weeks in Western Washington. Black bears are, of course, no more troublesome than they ever were. Human/bear interaction has just increased with the last decade’s real-estate development boom. (Thankfully, slowing of late.) Many of the humans involved have no wildlife education. They are urban dwellers come to forest’s edge via the paved cul-de-sac in front of their new home. When real-estate agents are selling great family neighborhoods, they rarely mention that “last year your front yard belonged to a family of black bears” No surprise the bears’ new neighbors come with no rules of human to bear etiquette.

I think developers grabbing up habitat and transforming it into human neighborhoods should be required to provide wildlife educational material with every home sale. To help motivate due vigilance on the educational requirement, they should also have to fund all subsequent “trap and relocate” costs when the inevitable “meeting of mammals” occurs.

Nuisance wildlife (mostly bears, and an occasional cougar) are the responsibility of Washington State’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. Their nuisance wildlife reports rose by nearly 10 times between 2003 and 2007 – the local development peak. There are not 10 times as many bears. Bears are no more interested in being around humans than ever. For every bear that is seen, it’s estimated there are 10 or 15 that stay completely hidden. The big culprit is humans – especially those who carelessly (or intentionally) create easy food sources which attract the bears. “Nuisance bears” are often recently launched youngsters looking for their own territory.

Black bears have fairly lousy eyesight, and moderate hearing – but their nose rules their lives. They are opportunistic omnivores, primarily vegetarians (although they will eat small mammals, fish, reptiles and insects when they don’t have to work too hard for them). They sometimes eat fresh carrion. But no food smell is more interesting to bears than that “supermarket” treasure trove they find near human houses. Once they find it, it’s hard for them to resist and they can’t be discouraged. The only fix (short of death) is relocation.

Attracting bears with food is easy – smelly garbage, dirty barbecues, bird feeders and pet foods. If you can’t keep the garbage inside until pick-up, it should at least be tightly bagged within the garbage can. (Environmental paradox: use plastic to protect the bears.) People who leave food out for those “cute, little raccoons” are just asking for trouble. Even if they are fortunate enough to avoid a bear on their deck, as the population of fed raccoons increases, the raccoons themselves become very aggressive. Small dogs and cats don’t have a chance against a competitive or provoked raccoon. Humans who feed the wildlife, ruin it for everyone (including the critters). Once the animals equate garbage can or porch with food source, everyone in the neighborhood is subject to unwanted visitors. This is why education is so important.

Common sites of nuisance bear reports are also schools. New elementary schools to support new homes are often located in sylvan settings. Black bears don’t wander out of the forest in search of little kids to eat, but they are attracted to all the goodies in those lunch pails. Lunch box contents get traded, carelessly discarded, left behind and lost. The bears just follow their noses.

Perhaps part of the problem is Western Washington has some big metropolitan areas – people don’t usually think of the Seattle area as “wildland” or bear country. States like Alaska and Wyoming have active wildlife education programs to protect citizens. Washington State needs more of that.  With no grizzlies, we don’t really have “big bad bears,” we just have big, misunderstood bears – and (from the bears’ perspective) “big, bad,” misinformed humans.

By Trish | Posted in Hermit's Rants, Home, Wildlife | Tagged , , , | Comments off

More Memorable Hermits: Mountain Men Jeremiah Johnson and "Bear Claw" Chris Lapp.

September 16, 2008

No list of memorable hermits would be complete without one or two “mountain men.” Most Memorable Hermits No. 3 and 4 will be Jeremiah Johnson (played by Robert Redford) and Johnson’s mentor/aggravant “Bear Claw” Chris Lapp (played by the late Will Geer). The 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson was directed by the late Sydney Pollack. Filmed in [...]

Subjectivity and Fear: "Harold, There’s Not Much on Dry Land that Scares Me Anymore."

September 12, 2008

These were my words to a former employer (the late Harold Johnson of Alaska Diesel Electric) who thought I might be afraid to be left alone in the building after dark. I was working late on a marketing project. He and I were the only two left in the building and he wanted to go home. He knew I could “lock-up” on my own, but he was an old-school gentleman who didn’t believe women should be left unguarded to fend for themselves. He did like the idea that I was willing to put in the extra time to finish the project, however. I assured him I was almost done and would be fine.

I’d been sailing for more than 10 years at that point. Harold laughed. He was also a boater.

What’s scary is always determined by life experience. Sailing on a small boat in a gale with big seas (especially overnight) is one of two pivotal experiences which have forever tempered my perception of “what’s scary.” (The other is years of riding as a passenger in motor vehicles driven by Griz – but I’ll save that for another post.)

You meet people who are rarely upset by external events – many of them middle-aged or older – but some younger ones, too. Those who have been through or seen a lot – soldiers, firefighters, cops – but also some “just ordinary” folk who have faced life-altering circumstances, grave injury or illness (or gone through it with a loved one.)

Experience is what makes the “small stuff” small.

Griz and I had a bronze plaque on S/V WaterBrother  which read:

“A superior sailor is best defined as one who uses his superior judgement to keep out of situations requiring the use of his superior skills.”

 (The plaque was actually given to us by my mother who worried a lot when we were sailing.) You try to heed those words; but it doesn’t matter how well you plan, experience comes along anyway. If you sail long enough, you get caught out in “weather.” Getting caught out is experience – on sea or on dry land.

Fred Roswold just posted a rewrite of a great storm story on his blog Wingssail including a comical explanation of why he and Judy wound up ”caught out.”  These are the sailing tales that are much more fun to talk about later, rather than experience first hand.

“It was a rough morning but we did knock off the miles on that trip: In twenty four hours we’d covered 175 miles even against the southward flowing East Coast Current. Did we like it? During the day it was simply a fast ride we’d rather not be taking. At night it was dark, loud, and scary but we carried on, and didn’t turn in until Yamba. And no, we didn’t like it.”

I’m glad Fred rewrote the story. Fear “in perspective” is so much more appealing and philosophical than the “real-time” exhaustion, fortitude and stifled, blood-curdling screams that get you out alive.

By Trish | Posted in Psychology, Sailing, Sports | Tagged , , , , | Comments off

Solitude and Personal Self-Sufficiency – External and Internal

September 10, 2008
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I’ve been following Kierkegaarden on Twitter.  My hermit nature was recently attracted to this: “Someone out in a blizzard dressed in the lightest summer clothes is not as exposed as one who wills to be a solitary human being in a world where everything is alliance and accordingly, with the selfishness of the alliance, demands [...]

Black Bears and the Backwoods Samba

September 6, 2008

We’ve had such a cool, wet spring and summer, our normally abundant wild blackberries have been slow to mature.  Signs (scat and one fat footprint) indicate this is drawing the bears a little closer in – to the few meadow-edge, blackberry patches that have begun ripening.  Berries are an important pre-hibernation, fatten-up food for the bears.

We have no grizzlies in this area - just (hungry) black bears. They reside on private forest land, which is surrounded by human population – rural changing to suburban.  The bears prefer to avoid humans altogether (smart). If you avoid surprising them, the bears just lumber off as soon as they become aware of a human. Even a sow with cub will give humans a wide berth if possible - the key for humans is to avoid getting between the Mom and her cub (the true danger point with black bears); or as with all bears - avoid surprising or engaging them.

So I’ve been singing on some of my walks lately – those that take me near the blackberries – giving the bears a lot of warning.  To remind myself to sing, I’ve been wearing my iPod* -  not even I like to listen to myself a cappella.

The cats frequently walk with me and are also great early warning systems.  On one of our walks today, the cats got a little ahead of me.  With their keen sense of smell, they obviously sensed no danger.  I suddenly noticed both cats had stopped and were staring back at me - like they thought there was something terribly wrong.  They hadn’t reacted to my singing this way in the past.  I wondered for a moment if there was a bear behind me.  But then I realized – singing away to a favorite playlist, I’d begun to dance – arms flailing, hips swaying, doing a little fancy footwork right there on the trail - truly enjoying myself alone in the woods.

But I wasn’t alone, of course. I’d upset the cats with my unfamiliar movements - or at least fascinated them.  A couple of small planes had just flown low overhead, too.  I wondered what the pilots thought. I started laughing  to myself, hoping everyone enjoyed the show.  And as for the bears – maybe I don’t even need to sing – just dance like a human - the gyrations alone may be enough to send critters in retreat.

*I am aware (and Griz pointed out) that in my post on personal Tasers, I said I would not go into a dangerous situation wearing headphones.  With reasonable precautions, I do not consider neighboring with black bears particularly dangerous. In many ways, the bears’ presence here indicates just how safe we are.

By Trish | Posted in Cats, Home, Nature, Sports, Wildlife | Tagged , , , | Comments off

Hermit Constitution. Thank you, Mr. Einstein.

September 6, 2008

The following quotation from Albert Einstein has been integral to our family philosophy since our days living aboard S/V WaterBrother: “My passionate interest in social justice and social responsibility has always stood in curious contrast to a marked lack of desire for direct association with men and women. I am a horse for single harness, not cut out [...]

Memorable Hermit: Carl Hiaasen’s Mick Stranahan

September 3, 2008
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Another of Hiaassen’s recurring fictional hermits is Mick Stranahan, a retired (as in “asked-to-leave”) investigator for the Florida Attorney General.  A serial husband (six ex-wives) and loner, he lives in a stilt house on Florida’s Biscayne Bay and when that is destroyed by a hurricane, he becomes caretaker of a nearby, isolated island. Stranahan’s investigative skills come in [...]

Most Memorable Hermits: Nominee No. 1 – Carl Hiaasen’s Skink.

September 3, 2008
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I’ve only been reading “mystery” novels for about five years. One advantage of waiting so long to “discover” the genre, is now when find an author I like, I can go back and read all of his or her works. This is especially fun when the author writes series with recurring characters (common among mystery [...]