Kind of Blue

Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

You remember that old blues song, "It Takes a Worried Man to Sing a Worried Song" which ends in the line, "I know what a worried mind can be"? Well Seattle's home town bank, the sixth largest in the nation, is singing a blues all its own right now. Washington Mutual has built two distinctive high rises on the Seattle skyline in the past 20 years. This is the new WaMu Center at twilight reflecting the incandescent blue sky around it. WaMu recently announced layoffs of thousands of employees, and because of further plunging stock prices last week bringing year long losses to over 90%, its customers have become a bit anxious, some moving accounts this week, and others shuffling funds to make sure they are not over the FDIC insured amount per account. A friend mentioned that bank clerks were remaining super cheerful and helpful despite their trademarked Whoo hoo! turning to Boo hoo!