Peter Lynch

FDIC Won't Run Out of Money, But WaMu May Be Toast

Mr. Whalen's analysis is all good and fine. Wamu wouldn't be up for sale or other strategic options if its real estate book weren't performing poorly.

However, the latest development in Washington is a game changer for Wamu. FDIC doesn't want to take over wamu...they want it sold or recapitalized. With the $700 billion RTC package in development, wamu has just become a lot more attractive to a lot more banks and priviate equity firms. And this RTC-like package also bought wamu something that they didn't have before just two days ago - time.