Washington Mutual seized … Assets Sold
JPMorgan Chase jumps in to buy $1.9 billion in assets from the government. The bank's failure is the worst in US history and the 13th such failure this year.
The Office of Thrift Supervision said on its Web site: "With insufficient liquidity to meet its obligations, WaMu was in an unsafe and unsound condition to transact business." San Diego California home listings
Home Equity vs. Second Mortgage
Citigroup spent $1 billion advertising it's Live Richly campaign from 2001 to 2006 encouraging Americans to take out home equity loans. Marketing executives knew that "second mortgage" had an unappealing ring. So they seized the idea of "home equity," with its connotations of ownership and fairness. Advertising historians look back at the '80s as the time when bank marketing came into its own. Citigroup led the way by hiring away advertising staff from packaged goods companies like General Mills and General Foods, where catchy ads were more common. "Banking started using consumer advertising techniques more like a department store than like a bank," said Barbara Lippert, an advertising critic for the magazine Adweek. San Diego California income property listings