Check out this bit on Bloomberg. Banks have to maintain a certain percentage of deposits as cash on hand. WaMu fell below the threshold when all the money was pulled out in the last nine days, so government regulators stepped in and seized the bank.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aVA8ErWOAjmI&refer=us WaMu Seized by U.S., Assets Sold to JPMorgan in Record Failure By Ari Levy and Elizabeth Hester Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Washington Mutual Inc.<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=WM%3AUS>was seized by government regulators and its branches and assets sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co. <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=JPM%3AUS> in the biggest U.S. bank failure in history. WaMu customers withdrew $16.7 billion since Sept. 16, leaving the Seattle-based bank ``unsound,'' the Office of Thrift Supervision said yesterday. Branches are open today and depositors have full access to their accounts, Sheila Bair<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Sheila+Bair&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said. On Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 9:54 AM, Beth wrote: > > > >> ok, someone explain to me what "collapsed under the weight of its > >> enormous > >> bad bets" means. Whats "collapsed" mean? > > > > > > That is a visualization. The media wants to paint a picture that's as > > negative as possible. Not that bad stuff isn't happening. But you > > know.... > > > I get that part. > > What I dont' get is what "collapsed" is specifically referring to - they > don't have enough cash to make payroll? Obviously in banking its more > complicated than that - but thats what I want to learn. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| 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:271002 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
