WaMu is Toast

The death knell for Washington Mutual is finally ringing. Their credit rating was recently reduced to "junk" status and the Fed is desperately searching for a buyer:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09172008/business/feds_try_to_find_a_buyer_for_wamu_129499.htm

If you have more than the FDIC insured limits ($100,000) in any bank--especially WaMu--rectify that immediately. WaMu has too much toxic crap on their books and I seriously doubt they will find a buyer in time to avoid a government takeover.

It's tempting to take my CD out of there given the bad news, but I don't think there's much point. But it's fully insured by the federal government and in this environment a truly "safe" bank is hard to come by. Plus, the FDIC still has money to cover our deposits. That may not be the case after a few more large banks fail and I'd rather have my money with one of the FIRST banks to go under than the last:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080916/ap_on_bi_ge/bank_deposits_safety

I'm sure you kids already know all of this because you're smart enough to read this blog (I'm kidding. Sort of), but please spread the word about FDIC limits.

It's worth noting that when IndyMac went belly-up, a lot of people--unaware of the FDIC limits--lost at least half of anything over $100,000 (it's also notable that IndyMac was not even on the FDIC's troubled bank watch list when it went t*ts up). Just want to make sure my readers are all protected.