Not to mention ‘Integrity’

With three banks having gone kablooey over the last 12 months, and another three in nearby Atlanta suburbs suffering a similar fate, The Wall Street Journal nominates Alpharetta, Ga, as “bank-failure central.” No argument here, but to note that two of the banks picked off by the FDIC in 2008 — one in Alpharetta, and another in deepest Minnesota — featured the word “Integrity” in their names.

And then there’s the hovel in lovely Avondale, Ariz., refinanced for $103,000 by the intensely scrupulous brokers at Integrity Funding LLC, which sold the loan to Not-So-Wells Fargo, which sold it to HSBC, “which had packaged it with thousands of other risky mortgages and sold it in pieces to scores of investors.”

NakedShorts Umpteenth Rule of Whatever: If it feels the need to put ‘Integrity’ in its name, integrity is probably not its defining feature. 

Bank-Failure Central? Try Alpharetta, Georgia

by Dan Fitzpatrick

The Wall Street Journal Jan. 2 2008

Would You Pay $103,000 for This Arizona Fixer-Upper?

by Michael M. Phillips 

The Wall Street Journal Jan. 3 2008