The man with a taste for albatross. (Carl Reichardt, chief executive officer of Wells Fargo Bank, and the takeover of Crocker National Corp.) (column)

THE MAN WITH A TASTE FOR ALBATROSS

Cool Carl Reichardt. Before final papers are delivered on the Wells Fargo chairman’s record $1.07 billion purchase of Crocker National Corporation, he’s already wondering what next to buy.

But for Reichardt, it’s nothing to do with the scramble to get on board the deregulation wagon. His plans are to stay at home, tending his own Californian back yard while cleansing the new amalgam of almost all foreign involvement.

“California is the seventh largest economy in the world and should be the fifth largest by the turn of the century,” Reichardt told Euromoney in his first major interview since the announcement of the takeover.