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The July 11th FDIC seizure of IndyMac last week came a short ten days after IndyMac denied it was close to collapse. I imagine that there were a lot of hushed tones and worried whispers in banks all across the country this week as tellers and lower-level employees wondered if their bank was on the "secret" FDIC problem banks list.
It may not matter which 90 banks (up from 45 banks at the end of 2006) are on the FDIC problem banks list anyway - apparently IndyMac wasn't on the list and the FDIC was caught by surprise. This happened even as FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair had been sounding the bank failure alarm for well over a year, and has been pulling back retirees to gear up for the inevitable failures that are coming.
So which bank will fail next? Hmmm... let's see... could it be Washington Mutual (aka WaMu)? Are there some telltale signs that the 119 year WaMu run is almost over? Let's look:
- Cut dividend and slashed 3,000 jobs in December 2007
- Announced $2.5 Billion Capital infusion in December, then announced it would be $5 Billion instead in April
- $7 Billion turned out to be the REAL number by June
- TPG put in the money and already has substantial losses from their $7 Billion Preferred Stock purchase.
- The TPG $7 Billion deal put WaMu on the hook for a big part of TPG's losses if WaMu raises more money, which they will almost certainly need to do to stay afloat
- WaMu is one of the biggest U.S. players in the troubled mortgage marketplace (Big red flag!)
- Stock Price July 16, 2007 = $40.53... Stock Price July 16, 2008 = $4.53
- July 16, 2008 Market Cap of $4.77 Billion is way less than the $7 Billion TPG put in!
- WaMu is denying they are having financial difficulty (Big red flag #2!)
I'm no genius, but I'm smart enough to step around the dog-doo on the lawn. And when I hear that upper-level Wamu bankers are quietly suggesting that some of their larger, "better" customers move deposits over $100,000 to other banks, it perks up my ears, and I watch where I'm stepping.
Is it true? I have no way of knowing because I didn't hear this directly, I heard it indirectly ("My buddy is a manager at WaMu, and he told me...") so take it with an extra-large grain of salt. But even if this isn't happening, I can read the writing on the wall, and I can smell the dog-doo on the lawn. If I were you, I'd step around it too. In the meantime, you should ask yourself the question "Is My Bank Safe?"
Copyright 2008 Advantalo Resources, Inc.
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Horatio Whistleblower is an active financial planner who has decided to reveal the hidden underside of Retirement Planning, Mutual Funds, Banks, Stockbrokers, and Financial Planning in general. To find out the #1 ethical test that almost all Retirement Planning Advisors, Insurance Agents, Mutual Funds, Banks and Stockbrokers fail, visit Horatio at AngryBroker.com |
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