As if the economy isn’t in trouble enough, now my bank, Washington Mutual (WAMU), has failed. Ok, it actually didn’t fail, but it might as well have. Being bought out by JP Morgan for chump change ($1.9 billion), isn’t much consolation.
I’ve been with them over 20 years, ever since they were Great Western Savings. I even owned some of their stock (purchased recently at depressed levels).
Yes I knew there were problems at WAMU, but chose to put them out of my mind. After all, that’s my bank! The wife of one of my cycling buddies is even high up somewhere in the organization, so I thought the risk was low. I thought they were “too big to fail”. So much for my judgement.
But the little bit of money I’ve lost, pales in comparison to what comes next. What’s to become of my branch office located only about a half mile from my house? And more importantly, what will happen to all the people in the bank I have become accustomed to seeing and talking to during my visits?
Oh well, no sense worrying about something I have no control over. I’m sure John McCain and the Republicans will save the day!
She had no idea, we were blindsided….. Think about how much we lost in retirement funds!
G
I’m with WAMU too. I have been hearing about their troubles for about 3 months. I wasn’t surprised. I only keep a checking account there.
We were with Coast Federal and it turned into Home Savings and a month later, it was Washington Mutual.
That guy from Metlife (Ken, I think) that does our 401k discussed WaMu last time he was at Arcturus, along with Wachovia and Rabobank (I think) as potentially dangerous in the upcoming months. He has asked if any of the employees banked there and to be careful.
I never thought Ken was very bright to begin with, now there is no doubt in my mind.
It was that kind of thinking that brought down WAMU.
Unless you had over $100,000 in any SINGLE TYPE account ($200,000 for a joint account), there was no danger of losing any money. And it would have been quite easy to structure deposits in such a manner to insure no loss of money, even if you had 2 or 3 or more times that amount of money at WAMU.
But in the last 9 days depositors withdrew almost $17 billion, artificially creating a liquidity crisis, forcing the Feds to take it over.
As it was, JP Morgan was able to buy WAMU, at a fire sale price, and without a penny’s loss of depositor money, even if the depositor wasn’t smart enough to structure their accounts to protect themselves.
It never ceases to amaze me, and frustrates me to no end, that in this day and age, with the internet, and such easy access to information, people in this country are soooo stupid.
No wonder the Republicans have easily been able to manipulate so much of the population into adopting their narrow minded, selfish philosophy.