Government seizes WaMu, sells some assets
 

NEW YORK - As the debate over a $700 billion bank bailout rages on in Washington, one of the nation?s largest banks ? Washington Mutual Inc. ? has collapsed under the weight of its enormous bad bets on the mortgage market.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26893612/




Holy shit. I did not see that one coming. Had not heard a bad thing about them or that they might be in trouble.


Think I might open my own bank...

This was on the news yesterday at closing almost. So now what happens to the share holders?


If you had stock in WM (aside from being a fool) what happens now? Do your shares get moved over to JP Morgan common stock? Or do you just lose out?

I wonder how much they save buying it from the gov't instead of buying it directly before the seizure.

What a cluster fuck. These people were just handing out money on houses like idiots.

and the ball keeps rolling.....

Let them fall...

Let it all fall...

You just lose out.

Seriously?

your kidding right?

FUCK!!! It's trading at 16 cents right now!!!!!! The volume is in the hundred thousands, and climbing SUPER FAST!!!

Buffet's 1990 shareholder letter explains how to stress-test a bank's balance sheet - using Wells Fargo as an example. It's just a simple little calculation but using it on WM sure would have kept you clear of it.

Basically make an assumption that x% of loans will default and that y% of the loan value will be recovered. Then compare that loss to earnings and make sure that even under this condition the bank will not have a loss.

Texas Pacific Group lost $1.3 billion according to this article.

http://www.efinancialnews.com/privat...ent/2451975783

TPG?s losing its investors $1.35bn (?925m) through the forced sale of US bank Washington Mutual to JP Morgan has caused market sources to question the wisdom of the firm?s recent emphasis on financial services. It is the largest known loss by a buyout firm since the credit crunch began, although in the fall out of the dot.com other firms lost substantial sums which may be greater than the WaMu loss.

I have no interest in it and even I knew that WaMu was in trouble.

My brother David called this about 6 months ago when their stock was trading pretty high. If he played the stock market, he would have made quite some money, Oh well.

Should we be worried?

Should we run and withdraw our money from wamu?