Washington Mutual Collapses

[PeaveyFury]

Washington Mutual was seized and placed into receivership by the FDIC tonight, and some of the assets were sold off to JP Morgan Chase.

 

Wow.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2008...tm?postversion=2008092521

[pitchleague]

aw, that means no more of those funny commercials with those old guys.

 

Sad, the Wall Street that we have now.

[GAME05]

the career i'm studying for has the option to move anywhere in the world. once i thought it would be a fun option. now i'm wondering if it might almost become necessary just to find a job opening.

 

i'm really getting pretty nervous about what the state of things might be like a couple years from now.

[homer]

Wamu's collapse has been rumored for a few weeks.

[PeaveyFury]

Yeah homer, it certainly wasn't out of the blue. But it has to sting a bit with a 700 billion dollar bailout being debated right now and probably just days away from passing.

[Team Canada]

I sure hope people learn from this.

[sgtcluels]

I sure hope people learn from this.

We'll find out if Congress learned a lesson on Friday.

[Tailgat0r76]

I guess that's why they say recessions are almost good in the longrun because they streamline the economy and weed out the weak...

[valpocrewsader]

I guess that's why they say recessions are almost good in the longrun because they streamline the economy and weed out the weak...

We've still yet to hit a recession.

[Tailgat0r76]

You're right; rather "economic slowdown"

[sbrylski]

http://brewerfanpoliticalscene.yuku.com/

[berniebrewer4life]

You're right; rather "economic slowdown"

Yea, IIRC a recession has to have 2 straight quarters of loss to occur(i think, it's late), and that has yet to happen.

[Diskono]

So hopefully now, I won't be getting 2 Washington Mutual credit card offers in the mail EVERY DAY anymore.

[PeaveyFury]

No, they'll be coming from Chase now. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[craigharmann]

Probably not a whole lot of WaMu folks saying WooHoo anymore. It's sad. Just a reminder that we all need to live within our means.

[fondybrewfan]

I work at a smaller regional bank and people are absolutely freaking out about their money. We have been fielding a ton of calls. We are literally in no danger at all (Virtually no exposure to Sub Prime) but it doens't stop people from panicking. For the most part investment banks have been failing, not your standard bank.

 

Plus if you really are worried about your bank you can go to FDIC.GOV to check your banks latest financial statements. Just check their capital and liquidity levels.

[homer]

question abotu FDIC: is it insure per account/per bank or in total? So if I have $300K and split it equally between three banks I'm covered in the event of a bank failure right? Not that I have $300K floating around - just curious.

[panthernick]

3 accounts with 100k each would be covered. A lot of people went for higher interest rates given with higher balances and lost out big time.

[PeaveyFury]

3 accounts with 100k each would be covered.

 

But I think each of the three accounts would have to have a different account title, right?

[MHgb]

My understanding is 100K per person, per bank. Joint accounts would be 200K.

 

I wish I had that problem though.

[panthernick]

To my understanding (through my employment) as long as your money is separated into 3 different accounts you would be covered. What happened to a lot of the people was they jumped at higher interest rates for higher balances. For instance, many banks offered substantially higher interest rates for accounts holding say 300k instead of 100k. Therefore, when the bank collapsed the FDIC only insured 100k. (More money would be divided amongst account holders once the banks assets were liquidated.)

[FVBrewerFan]

Why would anyone have $300,000 in cash in a bank anyhow? For a toaster and 3% return on a CD?

[nate82]

Why would anyone have $300,000 in cash in a bank anyhow? For a toaster and 3% return on a CD?

Because it is liquid. People who normally have $300,000 in cash in a bank are ones who are retired or are about to be retiring. Still not a good strategy to have anything over $100,000 cash in a bank. There are better liquid investment options that are better and will give you a better interest rate than a bank could give you.

[chuckiehacks]

Why would anyone have $300,000 in cash in a bank anyhow? For a toaster and 3% return on a CD?

3% is nearly double the S&P 500 over the past 3 years.

[FVBrewerFan]

But less than gold, oil, corn, and lots of other investment vehicles. Heck, even an annuity would be a better option.