# How big is WaMu?

The largest bank failure in U.S. history was Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company.Â  When it failed in May 1984, it had $41 billion in assets and$30 billion in total deposits.

According to the FDIC press release, when IndyMac failed in July it had $32 billion in assets and$19 billion in deposits, making it the second-largest failure in history.

Washington Mutual has $310 billion in assets and$182 billion in deposits.Â  (Their market cap is now below $4 billion.)Â So think of WaMu as 10 IndyMacs. The FDIC estimates the IndyMac failure will cost their insurance fund$9 billion.Â  The total size of the fund is now \$45 billion, its lowest since 1995.Â  When the fund runs out…Â  Well, I am not sure what happens, exactly.Â  Presumably FDIC taps the Treasury, meaning the taxpayer, meaning you.Â  (Actually, Treasury borrows the money from China and Russia and the petro-states.Â  It all depends on how you look at it.)Â  Anyway, I am not sure what the mechanism for replenishing the fund would be…Â  I’ll get back to you.

Update

I got a link from The Man!

And saw something that reminded me of a joke.