The Bell Tolls for Wachovia

This once conservative bank wrote its own obituary in deals that undermined its roots.
By Jim Cramer ,

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Remember when

Wachovia

(WB) - Get Report

was a respected, conservative institution? When it was a classic good regional bank that could always be counted on to deliver the numbers and be good to its clients and shareholders?

What is this Wachovia? Where did this Wachovia come from?

How could Wachovia lose $1 billion of its entrusted funds in a highly levered

Citigroup

(C) - Get Report

hedge fund called Falcon? How did it allow itself to be lulled into this kind of madness?

Or California. How did Wachovia get beaten over the head so badly in this Golden West transaction? Did it just take the Sandlers' -- the old owners -- words for it that the loans were good? Did the company do any due diligence about the Golden West pick-a-way-to-pay plan, where the borrowers basically could get a free ride in a house if it went up in value but Golden West, and now Wachovia, bought the downside? How did it let a "heads you win, tails I lose" situation develop?

I sit here and look at this once great franchise and I wonder whether:

A) It had just lost its mind and the people running it had no idea what they were doing, or

B) They decided they wanted a lot of risk and betrayed their roots.

Either way, it is the obituary for the Wachovia as we knew it, and a recipe for a stock that simply can't be owned

even if there is a turn

unless this management vanishes from the face of the banking earth.

Sad. Really sad.

Great legacy lost.

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in the stocks mentioned.

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