Remember that scene at the beginning of It’s a Wonderful Life, where people are all desperately trying to get into the bank because if it fails before they get in, they lose their money? That’s what the FDIC prevents.

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      • shortwavesurfer
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        3 hours ago

        I know wamu was a big failure but i dont know much about how it was handled. I heard a lot about Lehman Brothers, but that was an investment bank. So that’s different.

        • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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          3 hours ago

          I mean…

          A single big bank failure would probably wipe out the FDIC entirely and not everybody would get their money.

          So that’s false.

          • shortwavesurfer
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            3 hours ago

            I have no idea just how much was insured at Washington Mutual, and I have no idea what the position of the FDIC was at the time. I literally know nothing about that era.