Washington Mutual Goes Under

Washington Mutual, an ailing bank, was taken over by the government Thursday night and quickly sold to J.P. Morgan, to avoid a $31 billion loss in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). According to the New York Times, the $307 billion WaMu is "the largest bank failure in history". J.P. Morgan and Bank of America are now the U.S.' largest banks. Both of these have taken on the assets of collapsed banks (Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch not long ago) at bargain-basement prices, and both may have made a fortune in the process. However, should they begin to suffer in today's volatile money markets, the economy may be in even further trouble.