Surprise, Surprise: WaMu Failure Fueled By 'Fraud And Greed'

In a revelation that will surely shock the nation, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations concluded a year-and-a-half long inquiry into the collapse of Washington Mutual, once one of the nation's largest financial holding companies.

The panel claimed that WaMu's collapse was due to a "toxic mix of high risk lending, lax controls, and destructive compensation practices", along with WaMu flooding the market with "shoddy loans and securities that went bad". Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), the chairman of the subcommittee, delivered the blistering assessment during the hearing.

Washington Mutual is a case study of the corrupt business practices that led to the subprime mortgage meltdown - and the ensuing crisis and its after-effects that have persisted to this day. We would do well to keep this company and others involved in the crisis in mind when considering financial reform in the coming months.