With approval at 9%, Democrats decide to touch off bank run
Believing Congress’ approval rate might hit double digits, Senator Chuck “The Camera Hunter” Schumer decided to bill taxpayers tens of billions of dollars by starting a bank run.
The run on the bank came after a critical letter about the bank from Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. Federal regulators said on Friday that Mr. Schumer’s letter had prompted the collapse by causing the run and scaring away potential acquirers.
“The senator made comments in his letter questioning the viability of the institution,” John M. Reich, director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, said in a phone call with reporters. “When a member of the United States Senate makes such a statement, it frightens depositors.”
In the days after Mr. Schumer’s letter was released on June 26, IndyMac customers withdrew an average of $100 million a day from the bank, or a total of $1.3 billion, the government said. Before Mr. Schumer’s letter, the bank had been receiving net inflows of money from depositors, Mr. Reich said.
Always willing to accept responsibility, the Democratic Senator denied he had anything — anything at all — to do with the bank run.
Mr. Schumer quickly fired back [stating,] “If OTS had done its job as regulator and not let IndyMac’s poor and loose lending practices continue, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” Sen. Schumer said. “Instead of pointing false fingers of blame, OTS should start doing its job to prevent future IndyMacs.”
Shw-w-w-w-w-w-weeeeeeeeen! Err, that was supposed to be a “tape rewind” noise (you know how hard it is to do sound effects in the blogosphere)…