How many banks in desperate need of capital bought back their own stock in 2006 before this crisis began?

How many banks in desperate need of capital bought back their own stock in 2007 after this crisis began?

How many banks in desperate need of capital bought back their own stock in 2008 while we are in the middle of this crisis?

Take Wachovia for instance in reverse chronological order:

In the first quarter of 2008, they bought 539,694 shares at an average price of $37.86 per share. It’s at $18 now.

In 2007, Wachovia purchased 22 million shares at an average price of $54.35. $1.195 billion now worth $396 million.

In 2006, Wachovia purchased 82 million shares at an average price of $54.96. $4.5 billion now worth $1.476 billion.

A few billion down the drain. Does anyone really care?
Don’t stop with Wachovia, just pick any bank and look through their 10-Ks and 10-Qs.

What does it matter? Does it matter that these guys are getting bailout after bailout of taxpayer capital when they couldn’t manage their own capital? I guess it doesn’t matter to them, or to the government or to many investors who cheered the buybacks a few years ago and cheer the bailouts today.

But it matters to me. And it’s really going to matter to me when I see how many shares a bank bought in the second quarter of 2008. Better yet, I wonder how many banks were buying shares in advance of being told by the government that they intended to bailout Fannie and Freddie or that there was going to be a selective short squeeze on 19 financials.

FOLLOWUP 3:15pm 07/23/08 About a minute after posting, I saw a story that Bank of America approved a 75 million share buyback plan. It’s not a surprise. How about the government lends them a few billion so they can buy a few billion dollars of their stock? Nice.