The financial crisis continues. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Inc. came to the rescue of Washington Mutual Inc. yesterday, buying its banking assets after WaMu was seized by federal regulators in the largest failure ever of a U.S. bank. This is the second time in six months that JPMorgan Chase has taken over a major financial institution crippled by bad bets in the mortgage market: JPMorgan Chase buys WaMu assets after FDIC seizure.
I bring this up here for just one silly reason. WaMu customers who logged onto their bank's website this morning were greeted with the image above. Hey, folks! Your bank—with all your money in it—just failed and had to be bought out. Scary. But take comfort in this photo of these two cute Asian kids. Welcome! (Thanks to Eugenia of Asian American for Obama.)
Funny though, almost immediately after I came across it, the image disappeared. It's gone. I don't know, maybe someone decided the two Asian kids weren't so comforting or welcoming to bank customers after all...
Maybe someone feared it would give the impression to idiot customers that WaMu was being taken over by a more sinister entity... like China! Maybe. Maybe someone saw this post at Wonkette, and the subsequent comments, and got a little nervous: They Are Coming.