WAMU Seized By The Feds!

We Are In The Midnight Hour In The Garden Of Good And Evil

There's only a few things that interest me...work...and those
trappings of aristocracy that I find worthwhile.
The very things they're forced to sell when the money runs out.
And it always runs out.
And then all they're left with...is their lovely manners. -
Kevin Spacey as Jim Williams from the movie
"Midnight In The Garden Of Good and Evil"

U.S. Government Seizes Washington Mutual

Friday, September 26, 2008

The U.S. government on Thursday made the largest bank seizure in American history, taking over Washington Mutual, the severely troubled savings and loan, and selling pieces of it to JPMorgan Chase in an emergency deal intended to avoid sticking the taxpayer with a bill for another bank, according to people briefed on the plan.

For weeks, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department had been nervous about the fate of WaMu, among the worst-hit by the housing crisis, and had pressed hard for the bank to sell itself. As panic gripped financial markets last week after the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers, U.S. regulators stepped up their efforts, working behind the scenes, and at times going behind WaMu's back to work privately with potential bidders.