End of an era

Shareholders of Golden West Financial Corp. (parent of World Savings) made it official today - approving the company's $24 billion sale to Wachovia Corp. AP cranked out a nice little feature about Herb and Marion Sandler, the husband-and-wife team who have been running things for 43 years. A couple of dozen shareholders showed up at Golden West's Oakland headquarters and snacked on cookies as they listened to the Sandlers one last time. Nice - except, what about Golden West's call options tripling over their average daily volume on the same day the deal was cut? Wachovia CEO Ken Thompson said he didn't think it involved inappropriate activity by Wachovia or Golden employees. "You don't like to see it," Thompson said. "If people are trading on insider information that's not a good thing." Yes, it's not a good thing. So how could it have happened without some participation on the inside?