In what was billed by the SF Chronicle as the largest collapse in US banking history, Washington Mutual was taken over by the Fed after frightened account holders bled $17 billion in cash during a massive bank run in early autumn.

The news hit the fan while Arvin and I were working from Hawaii back in early October. It’s been less than two months since then, and we’re still on edge pondering the future, as Chase (the new owner of WaMu’s assets) figures out what’s next. It has been announced that there will be layoffs in his division. The formal announcement is coming soon.

Past imperfect
Wamu flat-lines…

DOWn-n-n-n…
The Dow Jones Industrial average for the same six months…

Dow Jones ^dji – the same 6 months, ending 11/20/208

Pairings for a feast
The only linguistic device I love more than sarcasm is multiple entendre. In today’s case, the print edition of the SF Chronicle (photo above) offers tips for pairings for The Feast. I suspect that The Feast is going to be slim for many, and that for the Wamu’ers, as well as the fifty thousand people whose jobs are about to be axed from Citigroup, they’ll be pairing this not-yet slaughtered turkey of an economy with a goodly serving of ruined faith. Maybe Sarah Palin can help with the harvest.

Regrettably, this is no time for deep sarcasm. The financial realities now unraveling this nation of greed and excess and superfluousness call for a re-awakening and a re-envisioning of what it means to care for our country as a single nation, instead of a nation of will-have’s vs can’t-have’s.

Let them eat cock
(Rooster. Of course.)