UGHHH ... snooze you lose. I was so convinced about WFC but I decided to wait until later in the day to buy. Up 11%. Still on its way to closing above resistance point, and bailout passage should generate a nice jump on Monday so I'm entering.
You (me too) will be able to use Chase ATMs shortly. Here's more info: http://www.chase.com/welcomewamu/
If they're going to let the largest S&L fail, why not let the others get bought up by well-performing ones too? Maybe facilitate the process if they're worried but no bail out. Let free market reign.
WaMu could fail because JPM was there ready to pick up the pieces. The FDIC could not have afforded to cover WaMu's deposits, not without drawing some serious help from the Fed. You can let a few more banks fail, but at some point that insurance fund will dry up. That's not even the biggest problem right now. The problem is that money supply has stopped. The credit markets are not functioning. And until they get jump-started again, the death spiral will only continue to accelerate. Letting a few banks fail is not going to solve that problem.
So instead of a bailout couldn't we just lend that $700 billion at a low interest rates to the banks that are already proving they know how to run their business? Let the others fail and give more money to JPMorgan and Bank of America to lend out to consumers. Why should these guys do things the right way only to have the other banks who effed up compete against them again on fair footing?
# WaMu Customers # Welcome to # JPMorgan Chase ^ LOL @ www.wamu.com . AND "History of WAMU", before it changes: [rquoter]Leading the Way After rapid growth in the 1990s, Washington Mutual, Inc. is now established as one of the nation's leading financial services companies and continues to serve consumers and small- to mid-sized businesses through the various subsidiaries in the Washington Mutual family of companies[/rquoter]
I went to the bank today (wamu) today and asked them about this while I was there and they said nothing will change until late next year and there is nothing to worry about with your money or anything. He said if anything us customers should be in heaven right now getting wamu's rates with chase's ownership. He gave me a paper informing of the situation but I don't have it with me right now....