Investors who purchased recently paid as well.  WaMu is an example of a dividend paying company that steadly increased dividends ... 

... until they went bankrupt.

- Tom

nuthatch:

The employees are not the only ones to pay.  I am certain the tax payers will be paying too.  It seems to be the policy of this administration to transfer the fallout from those who caused the problems to the public at large.  Too bad there are still several months of this administration to go.  By the time they leave office we will probably be on the hook for about 10 trillion

tnlsea:

Investors who purchased recently paid as well.  WaMu is an example of a dividend paying company that steadly increased dividends ... 

... until they went bankrupt.

- Tom

Tom... We have never been shareholders of WM stock.  But as an income investor, I can assure you that almost all income investors would have sold WM around $33/share last October when they cut their dividend for the first time.  I have no idea what kind of investor would have been investing in WaMu recently

Stats

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=75586

A review of Federal Election Commission records back to 1989 reveals Obama in his three complete years in the Senate is the second largest recipient of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae campaign contributions, behind only Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the powerful chairman of the Senate banking committee. Dodd was first elected to the Senate in 1980.

According to OpenSecrets.com, from 1989 to 2008, Dodd received $165,400 in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign contributions, including contributions from PACs and individuals, followed by Obama, who received $126,349 in such contributions since being elected to the Senate in 2004.

What happens to people with WMu mortgages?

Washington Mutual owns my home mortgage. I wanted to start paying extra money each month to pay down my mortgage early. But given that WaMu is in trouble, is my mortgage safe? And is it safe for me to pay extra money towards my mortgage?

statsguy:

But as an income investor, I can assure you that almost all income investors would have sold WM around $33/share last October when they cut their dividend for the first time.

"Stats",

That's an interesting observation considering that the October '07 dividend was the same as that of three months before.

Income investors are pretty smart to be predicting the dividend decline 3 months in advance.

- Tom

tnlsea:

statsguy:

But as an income investor, I can assure you that almost all income investors would have sold WM around $33/share last October when they cut their dividend for the first time.

"Stats",

That's an interesting observation considering that the October '07 dividend was the same as that of three months before.

Income investors are pretty smart to be predicting the dividend decline 3 months in advance.

- Tom

I wish I had that kind of predictive value!  :-) 

I may have blown the dates, but my premise is still that the dividend investor would have gotten out when the dividend cut was announced.  WM announced on Dec 10,2007 that it would cut its dividend from 56 cents a share to 15 cents.  It was traded between 18.99 and 19.98 that day.  Most income investors bailed shortly afterwards.  They probably had losses but at least they had a bit of cash.

Stats