WaMu (Washington Mutual) has been in trouble. WaMu stock has dropped 87% this year. The federal government has been trying to locate a buyer for WaMu. It was announced tonight that JPMorgan Chase will acquire WaMu’s deposaits and assests. The federal government will take over the rest. WaMu stock is probably worthless.

In a post just a few hours ago, I wrote that major regional banks could fail.

Just a couple of hours ago, seattlepi.com posted an article with this statement:
“A Washington Mutual failure would dwarf the largest bank collapse in U.S. history – Continental Illinois National Bank in 1984, with $33.6 billion in assets. WaMu and its subsidiaries had assets of $309.73 billion as of June 30, and IndyMac had $32 billion when it was shuttered.”

This is one more indication of the seriousness of the current crisis.