washington mutual

According to CNN Money, WaMu’s brand spankin’ new CEO, Alan Fishman, now stands to walk away from the failing firm with more than 18 million dollars in salary, bonuses and severance. He’s been on the job all of three weeks. I have two questions. Is he single? Or is he looking to adopt? For Christ’s sake, it’s no wonder these firms are all folding.

Here is an interesting bit of trivia I found today. The last major investment bank to file for bankruptcy protection was Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1990. Probably too long ago for most of you to remember, but Drexel was a POWERHOUSE when Milken was swinging the bat. Ahhh, the good old days.

While we're on the subject of junk bonds (nice segue, right?), WaMu got clobbered by S&P today in a thoroughly predictable downgrade. Welcome to the junk pile.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aCbDcNYTh_cI&refer=w...

Lehman Bros, and the bloodbath therein, is so forty-five minutes ago. Let's talk about something that Johnny Lunchbucket at the corner bar is losing sleep over - the fact that his Christmas Club account might be going tits-up as Washington Mutual heads for the dirt nap.

Will the Fed step in to save a consumer giant? Or are they only interested in wrapping the security blanket around Wall Street skulduggery?