[daepp]

I know nothing of WaMu, but I've understand Wells Fargo got out of the mortgage game 12-18 months before everyone else.

Also - please don't forget about deposit insurance. Unless you have more than $100,000 in an account, and with proper legal strucutring, a wife and two children, you can extend that coverage to $1,400,000. I was the EVP/CFO of a small bank - this came up all the time - you have no worries under the scenarios I described. What I cannot understand is why people were lining up outside Indymac to withdraw their $2,500 account - as interviewed on the evening news.

In the early 90's I had some of the bank's excess liquidity invested in $99,000 cd's across the nation - and I often went for the high rate cds offered by the troubled banks. Over a 2-3 year period maybe 15-20 of these institutions were taken over by the FDIC/FSLIC. In no case did they ever fail to have a check ready for me Monday morning after a Friday afternoon takeover.

The FDIC itself is a very well run organization - and I say that as one who was auditied and regulated by them for nearly 20 years. In the mid 90's they even went so far as to RAISE their minimum graduating GPA requirements for employment. Not that this is everything - and they've been saddled by Congress with a lot of BS to deal with, but in all they are a pretty solid organization.

IMHO depositors need to be reminded that the full faith and credit of the US Treasury stands behind their bank deposits. In fact, they even guaranteed 50% of the deposits in excess of $100K at Indymac.