From the New York Times:
Washington Mutual, the giant lender that came to symbolize the excesses of the mortgage boom, was seized by federal regulators on Thursday night, in what is by far the largest bank failure in American history.
The news these days is reminiscent of a Monty Python bit:
SUPERIMPOSED CAPTION: ‘SUPERINTENDENT HARRY “BOOT-IN” SWALK’
SWALK: We admit that there have been outbreaks of hanging recently, but the police are trying to keep the situation under control. You must remember the courts are very busy at the moment and the odd death sentence is bound to slip through. Electrocutions are another big worry. But we hope that guillotining has been eradicated from the urban areas. And garrotting is confined almost entirely to Luton. So if you have a friend in prison or under the sentence of death, be sure to let us know at this address.
Cut to a mortuary. Various trolleys lie about with corpses covered by sheets. Two workers are sitting at a low make-shift table with cups of tea and a transistor radio, shelling eggs and dropping them in a pickling jar.
VOICE ON RADIO: …and Premier Chou En Lai, who called it ‘a major breakthrough’. Twelve men were accidentally hanged at Whitby Assizes this afternoon whilst considering their verdict. This is one of the worst miscarriages of justice in Britain since Tuesday.
