Apparently WaMu is for sale...after months of speculation rumors appear to be strengthening. What is one of the reason's for this? Customers. People who are smart enough to realize that keeping your money in the bank isn't such a hot idea these days.
http://abcnews.go.com/...
And who can blame them? I realize that deposits up to 100K are FDIC insured, but given how over stretched the government is these days, I'd be surprised if the government can afford to help bail out the little guy. Afterall socialism is only for the corporations.
"About $5 billion of customer deposits," she said, "have flown out the door in July and August."
5 billion! Which I realize is less than 2% of the total amount that the fed has bailed out so far this year, but that's a lot to me.
And soon is it before WaMu gets a bail out? The cynic in me is starting to wonder if perhaps this isn't a new game that this mega-corporations are playing. Let things get horrific and then have the tax payer bail them out.
And then I ran across this --
Some have said for weeks now that Washington Mutual could be the next financial institution -- after the brokerage firm Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week -- to go under thanks to the country's mortgage meltdown.
"They got into subprime lending, they got into ARMs [adjustable-rate mortgages]. Their home equity book is quite large, and these losses are building and building and building on their balance sheets and they simply do not have the capital to absorb these easily,"
So if he Fed is busy bailing out companies, why aren't we seeing them working them before the situation becomes critical? Or is that the only time they care?