I'm re-reading John Talbott's 2003 book "The Coming Crash in the Housing Market". Since his predictions were spot on, I'm particularly interested in his assessment of mortgage giants Fannie and Freddie. My fear is that they ultimately will have to be nationalized and the ensuing debt taken on by the government will ultimately lower the government's credit rating... lowering the value of outstanding bills and bonds and hastening the United States descent into the number 2 spot in global power.
On Monday I moved most of my remaining money from WAMU into Wells Fargo so I can begin the long, painful process of setting up and transferring all the bill pay, auto debit, etc.
IndyMac bank (founded by Mozilo) failed on Friday. It will prove the costliest bank failure in US history, approaching $8 billion (roughly 20% of the FDIC reserves). Soon, the inevitable failure of WAMU will be an even bigger blow and certainly gobble up the remaining FDIC reserves - and then some.