y'now, I looked at the subject line and thought that American University in DC had closed down it's radio station....
WAMU Erika L. Walker wrote: > http://voanews.com/english/2008-09-26-voa7.cfm > > *As U.S. lawmakers grappled over a $700 billion dollar bank bailout plan, > one of the nation's largest banks - Washington Mutual Incorporated - > collapsed under the weight of its enormous bad bets on the U.S. mortgage > market. From Washington, VOA's Purnell Murdock reports on what is seen as > the largest bank failure in U.S. history. > > *With financial markets reeling over the recent crisis on Wall Street, the > collapse of Seattle-based Washington Mutual could not have come at a worse > time. > > Federal regulators moved quickly, seizing the troubled mortgage lender late > Thursday and selling the thrift's banking assets to U.S. investment bank > J.P. Morgan for nearly $2 billion. > > The Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC), insures Americans' bank > deposits of up to $100,000. But it says because of the deal it will not have > to use its assets to cover Washington Mutual's deposits. > > The FDIC had already spent billions of dollars in its takeover of IndyMac, > which collapsed in July. Some analysts say a Washington Mutual failure could > have used up half the money in the government insurance fund. > > J.P. Morgan Chase said it plans to close less than 10 percent of the two > companies' branches. The bank has not yet decided which to close. Kelsey > Wesley, a Washington Mutual employee says employees are nervous. But he adds > the company, commonly known as WaMu, has been good to them in the past. > > "I'm not gonna say that is not gonna happen but no matter what WaMu has a > really impressive severance package and I think that's going to be carried > on even if there is a merger," he said. > > John Graybill, another Washington Mutual employee said he is optimistic. > > "Of course we are going to have some uncertainties and some questioning > about what's going on. Have I been nervous? Sure. That's the nature of the > whole beast," he said. "When a large company gets bought out you wonder > about your job. Are heads gonna roll? You just don't know but we have faith > in our bosses and the people upstairs." > > FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair says this will be a seamless transition for the > bank's customers. She says there will be no interruption in services and > bankers can expect business as usual. > > Washington Mutual has been saddled with billions of dollars of debt because > it heavily invested in selling risky subprime mortgages to customers who > later defaulted on them. > > This is J.P. Morgan's second purchase of a financial institution left > vulnerable by the subprime mortgage crisis. It bought Bear Stearns for more > than two-billion dollars earlier this year. > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:270981 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
