WaMu Grabbed by FDIC and Sold to JPMorgan for $1.9b
This morning I read on the Wall Street Journal front page about the failure of WaMu being the biggest in the nation's history. Roughly $30 billion in debt and stock washed down the tubes. Holy Cow!
The fact that no bank was willing to buy WaMu until it failed shows how badly confidence has eroded in a banking system awash with record profits just a few years ago. Faced with deepening losses on mortgages, credit cards and other loans, big and small banks across the country are struggling with what many bank executives say is a crisis far deeper than the savings-and-loan debacle.
This just makes me mad. People will look at this industry and say "What a horrible bunch of greedy people" when the last statement in the quote says it all: bad loans.
OK, who is the major borrower here? Answer: People. People getting into homes and mortgages they can't afford. People running up credit card debit they can't pay. It's people. Every single one of us that lives beyond their means. Ask not for whom the bailout is - is it for thee