Ignorance is bliss:

I was chatting with an attorney last week who was getting ready to take a trip Italy with his wife. He banked at Vancouver’s downtown Washington Mutual. To prepare for his trip he decided he needed to head to the bank to get some cash to exchange to Euro’s. As he made his way to the teller he noticed that she was very uneasy. He handed her withdraw slip which asked for $2,000. He asked that it would be in large bills and explained his trip to Italy. The young teller made an awkward smile and leaned across to the attorney and whispered to him that they only had a total of $4,000 cash on hand…and it was in small bills. The downtown WaMu had $4,000 cash on hand! He looked behind him at the line of 5 people looking to make withdrawals or cash checks and then proceeded to look back at the teller. He asked her if he took this money would they get their money and she responded with, “probably not.”

What an interesting time we are living in right now. I understand WaMu is gone now, but people amaze me. My sister works at a jewelry store and the boss’ daughter freaked out last week about WaMu and went and pulled all her money out…about $800 worth! People amaze me. This money is insured! If the bank goes under you still get your money! But in the mad media panic and hysteria we often do some crazy ass things, like pull $800 out of your checking account because your local billion dollar bank is on the chopping blocks. Billion dollar banks going under and 777.68 point loss in the market is strictly business as usual.