Well the 8th bank went under this year.

The FDIC issues warning to these four:
MetroPacific Bank in Irvine, California;
Bank Haven in Haven, Kansas;
Clarkston State Bank in Clarkston, Michigan;
Hastings State Bank in Hastings, Nebraska...

Washington Mutual and Wachovia are on lists too.  Wachovia is the fourth largest bank in the US, and WaMu is the largest savings and loan in the USA.

->-bleeped-<-. No. It can't crash before I get my T. Seriously! Hold on a little longer, America!

How long does it take for T to go bad? I need to get enough to last through the depression! 

Where's the tipping point? How much can we borrow to bail them out?  Whatever happened to "free market" anyway?  It doesn't look like you can run a free market unless you have government bailouts.  Yeah... it's like they get paid twice... AND then they get a 20 million dollar bonus.

That's just my opinion.... I must be a left wing ding dong....

Cindi

The tipping point is going to be when a big one goes.  Little IndyMac in SoCal went down and it took 10% of the FIDC money to bail it, so I doubt if they could handle WaMu or Wachovia going down.

At that WaMu had a huge bailout last summer, but it didn't seem to help.  The problem is with the amount of paper they have on houses that are not worth what the paper says they are.

How about morally responsible mutual funds?

Mutual funds do as the stock market does, but only savings and checking accounts are insured by the federal government for up to $150K I think.  Mutual funds, responsible or not, are investments, and like all investments the risk is 100% in the hands of the investor.  So even if the mutual funds come from the bank, its ONLY savings and checking accounts that are insured, no other bank investment is insured. 

Quoteno other bank investment is insured

I would not bank on it.

Either is the success of the government to pay its debt. It is only faith in the U.S. Government that insures your wealth. Russia did not up hold there insurance, either did a few municipals in the states. Perhaps CA will fall next.

Banks are not the government, and investments entail risk.  Its only the accounts that are insured, and given a major or two (or at least a regional major) there might well be big trouble. 

That is, for the people who do not think we are in big trouble as it is.

The FDIC is the U.S.Government.  http://www.fdic.gov/

Just because you keep money in a insured U.S. bank does not mean the money is safe. First you have inflation which in resent years is greater than the interest minus taxes reducing the value of your money.  Second it is only insured to $100K per account. Third  if people stop buying savings bonds the federal government could not pay off those who are insured. Fourth printing more money will only increase inflation making your money's value less. Investing in real property or businesses means that as inflation increases they raise prices to maintain a fair return. If no one needs the products or buys they stop production. But there are always some hard assets. It is always a risk trying to improve your standard of living. Nothing is totally insured, (except death) return is based on risk.   

We've been printing money so fast its a minor miracle that the presses have not caught fire.  When viewed against the Euro, US currency is getting to be close to worthless.  A couple of cups of coffee and a few rolls are close to $25 American money in Paris now, and some currency exchanges no longer exchange dollars.

The FDIC is a government insurance policy, what controls money is the Federal Reserve and that's a whole different ball game.  It took me two 50 minute lectures in college to try to begin to explain the Federal Reserve system, what it is, who runs it, and what it does, and I don't think I even got close.  The fact that it's also about as boring as any topic I can think of didn't help - nobody ever needs sleeping pills at a lecture on monetary policy.  Plus the basic question of currency in the modern age is so strange that I don't think most people can even begin to comprehend it right off.  Most people want to think of it as real, when in fact, its mostly all in people's heads.

And its possible to have up to $600,000 insured in one bank, and of course, you could put $100K in 500 banks and be covered for $50 million.  Though I doubt most of the people reading this have over $100K in any single account.

QuoteMost people want to think of it as real, when in fact, its mostly all in people's heads.

The U.S.dollar is not backed by gold or silver only by people's faith in the U.S.Government. The trade imbalance drives the dollar's value down. We take more from other countries than we sell them. Oil being the main product. The US will never in the near or mid future be energy independent so we will need to buy from other countries. That being the case we need to produce more of something else here. As long as people are willing to buy from countries that pay less wage than here we will export wealth till they will control the wealth and we will be working at slave wages. Large international corporations can move around to what ever nation they please. Lobbyists of those companies pretty much control our laws and marketing that the gullible public march too. It is only when the people demand that their Representatives be accountable to long range plans and not till the next election will things improve. Neither Presidential candidate has spoken of the hard medicine of public responsibility that people need to understand. Things that are taken for granted have got to change.

Bush & Co. are wildly successful!  They have felled The New Deal.  Grover Norquist will get his wish for Christmas finally.

=K

I've got tons of savings in Vanguard...hopefully, they'll hang in there.

we know 90 banks are on the FDIC watch list, but they don't publish the list, guess who they answer to.