As you may have heard, IndyMac Bank has been seized by federal regulators for being insolvent. This is, of course, A Bad Thing(tm).
What I find most disconcerting is what the FDIC views as the reason it failed:
The director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, John Reich, blamed IndyMac's failure on comments made in late June by Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.), who sent a letter to the regulator raising concerns about the bank's solvency. In the following 11 days, spooked depositors withdrew a total of $1.3 billion. Mr. Reich said Sen. Schumer gave the bank a "heart attack."
WTF? At what point did the US Banking Industry turn into Schrodinger's cat? As long as you don't actually LOOK at a bank, it's solvent?
Or is he saying that membership in the US Senate conveys the stupidest super power ever conceived of, the ability to cause banks to fail by thinking about it?