"Washington Mutual is an issue of sloppy lending. WaMu tried to buy business and deposits in lots of areas during its nationwide expansion and the lapses in practices are taking their toll. If WaMu didn't have the huge deposit base, people would be far more concerned than they are."

"The other is far more worrisome to everyone I talk to: Countrywide Finance. There is a pincer move against these guys, legislation that would allow homeowners to sue and presumably walk away from their mortgages, as well as looming federal investigations about really stupid, attention-getting stock sales and higher interest rates that aren't going down fast enough to save the company."

"Amazingly, I always bring up MGIC (MTG) and PMI Group (PMI) as bigger problems, hapless insurers that bought back a huge amount of stock at much higher levels, and I believe I must do what CIT (CIT) did, which is to increase liquidity by offering equity right here. No one seems to have these two on their radar screen except for Doug Kass, which is pretty amazing."

"Amazingly, I always bring up MGIC (MTG) and PMI Group (PMI) as bigger problems, hapless insurers that bought back a huge amount of stock at much higher levels, and I believe I must do what CIT (CIT) did, which is to increase liquidity by offering equity right here. No one seems to have these two on their radar screen except for Doug Kass, which is pretty amazing."