For whose who are still banking with WaMu, and I’m one of you, moving to Wells Fargo sure seems like the reasonable thing to do.
a953/1236717575-bankcapitalandderivatives_2_.png

The graph is by Jonathan Golob.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

46 replies on “The Bad Banks”

  2. Hey, Charles! I see once again you’re using someone else’s material, with no citation, no link to the original, yadda yadda! Sup dude? You didn’t learn your lesson with the Dubai picture? Copyright doesn’t apply to the Great Chucky? You’re above the laws of mere mortals?

  4. Ok, so recently on NPR they said Bank of America was a “Zombie Bank.” What makes it a bank of the living dead? It doesn’t look so bad here.

  7. @4 While a link would be nice, the source of the data, the name of the person who made the graphic, and the copyright are all right on the image.

    Did you miss that?

  8. @7, an email is in with McClatchy to see if The Stranger actually paid for this graphic and the analysis McClatchy did to produce it. We’ll see!

  10. So, did you hear the one about Citi turning a profit?

    I guess JPM and BoA are going down instead. I was banking on Citi taking the dive.

  12. Aaaaannnndddd, it’s down! That was fast. Good to know you kinda sorta respect the work people do to produce those images, at least when called on it.

    Look Stranger, I make my living producing stuff like that. When you grab an analysis like that without paying for it, you’re stealing the creative work of people like me. I know Chucky thinks that only He is entitled to get paid for His creative output, but the little folks like myself need to eat too.

  15. sdf, also, we at the stranger do a lot things, including slog. so it’s sometimes not easy to see which things on the internet are free and which are not at the speed of our work. i’m actually happy that you pointed out problems; i’m not trying to get away with anything. this is very much a learning experience for me.

  17. so… does this make any difference at all if you have less than a hundred grand in the bank… did anyone at WAMU with less than a hundred grand lose a penny, or even be denied access to their funds in any way… nope… and while there are indictations the FDIC may need some help, it’s gaurantee is just about as close to the full faith and credit of the United States as you can get. this is panicy bullshit

  19. @17: The FDIC’s minimum guarantee was upped to $250K late last year (I think; I’m not sure of the when, but I saw woman who runs the agency state the amount).

  21. I agree, the best choice is to go to a local credit union.

    You’ll get a higher savings rate, a better checking package, and any credit union ATM anywhere can always be used to withdraw cash from any other credit union anywhere in the USA.

    And Canada too.

  23. Also, keep in mind that the article is based on numbers reported on December 31, 2008. It was written yesterday, and doesn’t know about today’s news:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7935…

    Of course, these short-term profits (reported by Citi and Chase Manhattan, among others) aren’t going to determine the future of the banking industry any more than the 12/31 numbers are, but let’s try to keep a couple things in mind:
    1) Panicky stories sell more advertising
    2) Bank runs are really bad for the public, and don’t hold any benefit for the vast majority of individual depositors

  26. Just for the record, not everyone believes in the same imaginary property that sdf does. Attribution for honesty’s sake is one thing, but there are numerous costs to overly-permissioned societies. Of course, sdf just wants to make a buck–the “little folks” don’t have the resources to originate and check the originality of their work (McClatchy might!). The fact that someone does labor, doesn’t obligate everyone else to admire their work as much as they do (and what other motive could we possibly have on Slog for creation than profit?!). In short, sdf has an overly simplistic, entitlement-based view of copyright that some of us think very dumb.

  27. @23, why did you criticize the article for not mentioning today’s irrational Wall Street uptick when you admit today’s “news” has no bearing on anything?

  28. @5 – All decent Credit Unions (the only kind you should bank at) are FDIC insured, which means all deposits up to $250k are backed up by the Federal Govt.

    If you need more that $250k insured there are plenty of ways of securing your money within a bank, usually it involves naming a 3rd Party recipient of the funds (family member, child, spouse, etc) on paper. The bank will be happy to explain how this works and set it up for you.

  29. @27: I didn’t criticize it, I pointed out that it was written yesterday. And my point is that both items are about very short-term trends, so taking one and pretending that you’ve seen the future of the banking industry is silly.

  30. You’re not banking with WaMu anymore, you’re banking with Chase. Wells Fargo managed to avoid most of the sub-prime debacle, but when they scarfed up Wachovia, they ingested a lot of bad meat.

  31. Yea, go ahead and give your money to another soon-to-be failure. Or, do the smart thing and joint a Credit Union. Seattle Metropolitan is great – the best rates, and they won’t sell your mortgage. Free use of all CU machines, which with BECU in town, are numerous.

  33. actually, BofA is up a lot today (sadly, I know that because I have a few hundred shares of it, and am technically profitable on that stock).

  35. @28 — NO Credit Union is FDIC insured. The insurance is through a separate entity, the NCUA. The level of insurance is currently the same as FDIC insurance (250K per account “ownership”). So don’t go into your CU looking for the FDIC stickers — they ain’t there.

  37. Though I love Golob’s work, I’m a little saddened he used area and not length to represent these data. Humans are much better at judging relative length than relative area. Bar graph >> pie chart

  38. I opened an account with WAMU cause they were different, and I really liked what they had to offer however they still wouldn’t do auto loans. As much as I’d like to get a credit union going most my stuff has been with wells fargo from the beginning. The first day I heard about WAMU being taken over by JPMorgan I waited for my rent check to clear then I canceled my account. JPMorgan would rather this country be in flames so long as they get to keep all the money, they can burn in hell for all I care.

  40. @ Chris: I sent a corrected version to Charles. Sorry about the misspelling. I miss my copy editors!

    @boyd main: I also made a horizontal stacked bar chart. The area graph actually illustrated the differences better–at least to my eye. Charles has both versions.

    And I really hate the “FDIC is insuring your money, you panicky fools” argument. The FDIC is, ultimately, propped up by the taxpayers.

    It’s like having your sixteen year old–with a stack of speeding tickets and accidents, unable to pay his exorbitant auto insurance bill himself–telling you to chill out after getting into yet another accident because ‘we’re insured; it’s cool!”

  41. I bank with Wells, and I generally like them, but…

    …it’s just plain stupid for you to pick Wells for your savings because of this data. Unless you keep more than $250K in the bank you’re fully insured by the FDIC. Choose the bank – or the credit union – that you like.

    On the other hand, I wouldn’t invest a dime in HSBC stock right now.

  42. @40: To my knowledge, the FDIC has never had to ask the federal government for money. The fees paid to it by the banks have covered its operating expenses, including paying depositors at banks that have failed.

    Yes, it’s an insurance fund, and no, it shouldn’t encourage reckless behavior. At the same time, a large-scale bank run on Citi or Chase would ensure that those institutions collapse, and would be of absolutely no tangible benefit to the vast majority of depositors.

    I’ll agree with anyone who says the “too big to fail” banks need a lot more regulation than they currently have. I also think more investment in smaller banks would be much better for the economy in the long-run. But “get ur money out now!” is the wrong message.

  44. Wells Fargo is Terrible! I rely on my bank issued visa debit cards for everything, even when traveling. Once WF’s entire system went down for 2 entire days and I was stranded in another state with no way to access my money. They never even apologized. They will also freeze your account when they detect you traveling in another country, even after you called and warned them you would be in Europe/Egypt/Japan. Those two things alone have caused me untold gray hairs and huge cell phone bills.

    I am now with Bank of America and am much happier.

    And yes, I’d join a credit union if I could, but I have crappy credit and I don’t think they’d let me.

  45. @ erp, I don’t know that your credit rating matters at some credit unions. There are some credit unions you can join if you just *live* in certain counties or areas.

    Or try to get a job w/ WA state or UW or get an admission offer from UW. That’s how I became a member of a credit union.

  46. Any WA state resident can join Boeing CU now, I believe.

    And I think any faculty or staff or grad student can join WSECU.

    Anyone who has or had a job with the state (or UW or any other state institution like a college) can join SECUWA.

    There are others, this is just off the top of my head.

    Your mileage may vary. And stop driving so much …

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