Downplay the bad, highlight the good. Don't let your competitors know too much.That's how the sales game is played, and that's the strategy WaMu was trying to use when it asked the courts if it could refrain from disclosing how much it had cost them initially to purchase some of their assets, which are now again for sale. The feds saw right through the potential ploy, though, and the bank got a giant "denied" stamp on its request. The assets in question were declared not part of WaMu's shaken, shaken core, and therefore confidentiality wasn't going to help them against competitors. It certainly wasn't going to help them get their groove back. more ›