The Wall Street these past weeks until now are in such a great financial turmoil. Big old lending companies are going bankrupt – Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae, Wamu, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers…. I don’t usually get myself updated with this kind of news (I still live a “sheltered” existence) I’ve just heard about them in the news everyday because my boss is into stock market. Just earlier the big news was Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch, while AIG is still scrambling to look for a buyer; Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy; Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae have been saved by the government already. What in the world is happening? Why all of a sudden? What went wrong? They said it’s all rooted in the failed housing loans they gave out to homebuyers. The buyers can’t pay the interest/monthly fee so the bank foreclose the house and they can’t find anyone to buy the house from them. So they’re left with houses without generating income from it – no money coming in while continue to have huge operating expenses including maintenance of the houses. I think this is an incomplete explanation…as I’ve said I really don’t know anything about these stuffs.
So what has happened to WAMU? Its stocks continue to decline. It has still not filed for bankruptcy. Earlier I withdrew almost all my money in the savings account leaving only $90 with hopes of WAMU surviving and transferred it to BoA. During the transaction, I asked the teller when Wamu is closing. The teller said that Wamu is not closing. I asked her who’s buying WAMU. She said that Chase maybe. Wouldn’t it be in the news if JP Morgan/Chase has plans of buying WAMU? Well I haven’t heard of it. Apparently the news nowadays is not mentioning the fate of WAMU anymore. It’s I think, for the financial analyst/media/mass etc a forgone conclusion that Wamu is going to be bankrupt soon. All I heard from the news is that JP Morgan is one of the institution that may buy AIG. Despite those facts, what she said gave me a flicker of hope. I really like what I have in Wamu right now and if it survives whoopee for me!!!!
I really pray that the stock market will go up again. That the economy will have nicer outcomes. I felt sorry for those people in Lehman Brothers who were videoed leaving the building with their belongings. Lots of people have lost their jobs, lots of people have lost their homes, lots of people are without jobs….I pray that everything will improve for the good of everyone.
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Claudine
September 16th, 2008 at 2:49 am
Yup.. in times like these.. it’s better to have a job and ride the wave that have nothing at all. However, there’s nothing better than to trust God to provide for your needs.
Calvin
September 16th, 2008 at 9:30 am
yup, it’s because of the housing problem. before oil prices went up, real estate prices were low so many people bought houses via bank loans. not expecting the sudden rise of oil price, they were not able to pay the bank. because of this, alot of people from the construction, house business, furniture business got laid off. because of recession, people are spending less and they won’t buy the houses that were foreclosed anymore.
soso
September 26th, 2008 at 4:44 am
Well, my friend, it’s official!
WaMu is out of the market. And you’re teller had a good intuition regarding J.P. Morgan…
The word is that those with loans at WaMu should continue to pay them acording to the schedule as their contract is still active. Most likely some will start seeing J.P. Morgan/Chase logo soon on the top of the statement…
So sad for those who loved WaMu… and for everyone else.
My blog: http://choosestocks.blogspot.com