5 Signs Your Bank Is the Next IndyMac
By
Tim Beyers and Dayana Yochim
July 16, 2008
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Welcome to the Daily 5, our "Foolish" look at the business news you can use.
Banks look like the worst stocks in the world right now. Shares of Wachovia (NYSE: WB), Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM), and National City (NYSE: NCC) are in tatters. Not even Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) can get a salute. (Well, maybe one kind of salute.) Will your bank be next? Here are five ways to know if your thrift is the next IndyMac. Drum roll, please:
5. Your bank teller starts asking, "Do you want fries with that?"
4. The envelope stuffer in your next statement is for the "Save the Bank" fund.
3. Three words: Teller tip jars.
2. The ATM dispenses an IOU.
And the No. 1 sign that your bank is the next IndyMac ... Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) won't return its calls.
Call it gallows humor -- meant to disguise that we're as sick as you are about where the banking industry is now and where it's headed. A new study from Bridgewater Associates says bank losses could rise to $1.6 trillion from $400 billion today. Make sure to stock up on canned goods. And ice cream -- because, really, there's no such thing as too much ice cream.
See anything we missed? Have a different take? Post your thoughts in the comments box below. And then, when you're done, get your clicks with related Foolishness:
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