The largest U. S. bank, Washington Mutual, Inc. (WaMu) was seized by the government on Sept. 25th. This shutdown by Office of Thrift Supervision and the FDIC named receiver was influenced by $16.7 billion of deposit outflows at the Seattle-based thrift since September 15. WaMu was pilling up billions of dollars in losses due to failed mortgages, loans to people with bad credit, known as sub prime borrowers.

Like a "Knight in shinning armor" the JP Morgan Chase & Co. Inc. came to the rescue. It is reported by the Associated Press, "The FDIC, which insures Bank deposits, said it would not have to dip into the insurance fund as a result of the seizure. There had been concerns that the fund, which took a big hit after the seizure of IndyMac Bank, could be depleted by a WaMu seizure."

The deal will cost JP Morgan Chase $1.9 billion, it reported in a statement that it planned to write down WaMu's loan portfolio by approximately $31 billion. The JP Morgan Chase buyout raises questions in my mind, as it should with U.S. lawmakers in Washington.

Regulators said that Washington Mutual had about $307 billion in assets and $188 billion of deposits. What boggles my mind is why the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sold the thrift's banking assets to JP Morgan Chase & Co. for the ridiculous sum of $1.9 billion. Is there something that I'm missing about this transaction? This sounds like more of the same, "shades of the S&L bank failure debacle" in the 1980s.

Washington lawmakers should conduct an investigation into this deal; who was involved in the negotiations, why did American taxpayers receive such small financial return on these assets? Future such transactions should have more oversight and accountability before completion of negotiations of sale of assets.

Darrell W. Weston
Beverly Hills, Florida

Note: The author was born in Caribou, and is a 1949 graduate of Portland High School and 1957 graduate of SMVTI in South Portland, Maine.