Buy Or Don’t Buy

So, I spend a lot of time on the internet.  Probably way more than I should.  And one thing I’ve picked up on in the last week, across image boards, blogs, random comments on articles, yes, even Gawker is that WaMu is gonna be DOA, and that anyone who has money there (WaMe!) might be SOL.

Keep in mind, Washington Mutual is the largest savings and loan in America right now.  Silly me, I thought my monies would be safe.  But here I am, filling out online applications for an HSBC checking account.  How did it get to this point?  Well, to be honest, it’s all rumor mongering and conjecture.  And really, the only reason I’m airing my own financial background in public like this is to illustrate a point:  WaMu going under has become an internet meme.

From what I’ve pieced together, retards who know nothing about finance feel comfortable passing along little information they can understand, and hope that no one calls them out on it, or initiates a deeper conversation.  I know I’m guilty.  In the last 12 hours I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve read “Wall Street is fucked,” “The DOW fell 500 points,” “Anti-trust laws be damned,” “The FDIC is running out of money!” “WaMu is next.”  To be honest, I have absolutely no idea what any of this means, and I’m well aware that no one ever prospered by taking financial advice from anonymous Cyberspace advisors, but there’s very little risk in diversifying.  I’m going to put a few hundred into the Hong Kong Singapore Bank of China Corporation and wait this whole thing out.

Meanwhile, I almost wonder if thousands of people shouting to “pull out of WaMu right now” might almost be a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts.  The meme might actually be responsible for the bank’s eventual financial collapse.  Now that’s the power of the internet!

Disturbingly fitting screenshot courtesy of my WaMu login page