More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat
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More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat
Become a fan of Monster Cat on Facebook!
Since this is new to a lot of us, I thought I’d share what I’ve learned about bank failures reading around… and writing it out will help me remember it too. Yes, I’m a geek.
First, the important bits about FDIC insured accounts:
Who’s the FDIC?
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is an independent agency created by the Congress that maintains the stability and public confidence in the nation’s financial system by insuring deposits, examining and supervising financial institutions, and managing receiverships.
In short, they’re here to help.
What exactly causes a bank to fail?
A bank fails when it doesn’t have enough assets to sufficiently cover its deposits (more accurately, regulators step in when the capital ratio falling below 5% of a bank’s assets). This might because they’ve made risky loans (can you say mortgage crisis?) or have made loans in excess of what they can cover with their assets.
As with Washington Mutual, when a bank qualifies for failure, the FDIC steps in to seize the bank to solicit bids from potential bank-buyers to purchase the failed bank. Customers don’t see much change and usually only experience a day or two of service interruption. Their accounts are transferred to the purchasing institution and FDIC insurance kicks in to cover the difference between the original bank’s assets and the deposits.
What banks have failed lately?
Handily, the FDIC keeps a list. Six banks have failed since August 1, 2008 and 13 have failed total this year… so far. Washington Mutual is the biggest on the list (in fact it’s the largest US bank to fail ever). What’s somewhat comforting is that, up until WaMu’s failure, most of the failed banks appear to be small, local banks which would be particularly susceptible in the current economic environment. (i.e. they don’t have the volume of available assets to withstand the kind of wild “adjustments” we’ve seen in the market not to mention getting easily battered by the housing market.)
If your bank fails…
Don’t panic.
Keep paying your car loan, mortgage, etc. as you usually would.
Usually the “news” will go up on their web site fairly quickly but not necessarily how you’d expect – WaMu already has “JPMorgan Chase” across their front page but you have to dig for any hint of the failure in their News section.
Contact the bank directly if you have any questions. (Bank failures attract scams, so be careful!)
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John McCain wants to postpone the debate in order to focus on the economic crisis. Barack Obama’s campaign has let it be known that they’d like to continue with the debate.
Other than feeling like perhaps someone hasn’t done his homework yet… I’d like to be reassured that the future president can multi-task under pressure. There’s no guaranty only one crisis or important nation event will occur at a time. In fact, I can promise you that we’ll be dealing with multiple big, bad problems for quite a while in the future.
I’m all for stopping the ads (please!) and rallies but the debate Friday is a critical opportunity for the electorate to view and judge their options. Personally, I think the debate Friday night is perfectly timed. The biggest issues in this election are more critical than ever. I want to hear you talk about them now, not three weeks from now. Of course, in the timeliness there’s risk because you might not say the perfect, politically safe and sound thing – I’m all for that too. Prove to me you’re intelligent human beings whose every word hasn’t been written by scriptwriters, advisers and lawyers.
Time to step it up and work even harder, gentlemen. Which ever of you gets to the White House will look back on this crunch time with a new perspective and laugh at how easy it was compared to what the presidency requires. I assure you this month is nothing compared to what awaits the winner at the end of the road. If you’re feeling worn out and spread too thin already, that’s not a good sign.
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So, the first episode of the new Knight Rider is available for free via iTunes.
A few little things I’d like to take issue with:
The best thing I can say about it? KITT’s lucky to get gratuitous green laser effects in his bat cave. Oh and the glorified receptionist who speaks 9 languages toys amusingly with the over-educated science nerd.
Sometimes free still isn’t cheap enough. Another one of my favorite shows from childhood has been ruined.
*Just as in the original Knight Rider, the first episode tells the story of the “invention” of Michael Knight. It’s possible that future episodes will not involve gun-toting but I’m not holding my breath nor am I interested enough to find out.
Happy First Day of AUTUMN! Welcome Fall! YAY! (I got 6 million mosquito bites while taking that photo.)
Endangered Words ALERT! Dictionary compilers are discriminating against obscure words! The TimesOnline has a list of words due to be culled from the next edition of the Collins dictionary and I’m sure there are other dictionary editors feeling the crunch. What I find counterintuitive is that editors are inclined to remove the most obscure words – these are the very words for which we find ourselves going to the dictionary!
Apple has recalled the iPhone 3G UltraCompact adapter. According to the recall notice, the prongs may break off in an outlet.
According to the Consumerist, there are 10 critical skills to have now that the economy has tanked. #10 is Food Preservation, which was on my list next anyway. I like #8 as well (Learn a Second Language). #4 is Cooperation, another key skill we all should have learned in kindergarten but seem to have forgotten sometime during the dot-com boom. It’s a very practical list – check it out.
dPS has an awesome tutorial up explaining how to make digital photos look like Lomo photography. I need to find time to follow the instructions.
My congestion is finally starting to let go. My voice is still a bit off. I feel like I have most of my brain cells back. After a week of congestion, sniffles, sneezing and general unhappiness with my head and sinuses, I’m rather happy to be feeling so well.
Cooler temperatures mean open windows and Monster Cat has been enjoying the extra fresh air. His spot on my desk is right next to the window anyway so he’s been passing his time sniffing the air and watching the birds. Since my window overlooks the flat roof of the porch, he gets to watch the birds hop about most of the day. This is very exciting for an indoor cat. He’s doing the full twitchy, hunting stances fairly regularly, complete with little kitty chirps. This morning the little wrens are driving him batty. His ears are vibrating with intensity.
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We visited the Apple store last night. I bought the latest Apple Keyboard. It’s going to take some getting used to. The keys are smaller but spaced the same as a standard keyboard. This gives the keyboard a sleek look as each key is framed with shiny aluminum – the frame is not quite flush with the top of the key but it’s close enough that typing is definitely a different experience. It also means there’s less room for sloppy typing, in my case at least. I’m also noticing that my fingernails are a little long as they glance off keys. I like the action of the keys and it’s a quiet keyboard as well so I’ll definitely adjust. It’s nice to have my volume and iTunes commands back on my keyboard. As an added bonus the “help” key has been replaced with a “function” key so I can accidentally hit it all I want without invoking the stupid little “helpful” creatures.
I got an iPhone earlier this month too. It’s fun though rather anticlimactic since they’ve been around over a year now. I did not wait in line for it, which was of course a requirement. I didn’t wait in a line last year to buy Will’s, I wasn’t interested in queuing up for my own. I like the little apps. I particularly like that it serves as both cell phone and iPod on short trips at least. We’ll see if the battery can manage longer trips. The screen is lovely, the headset that came standard in the box is good enough for me, and it’s a pretty cool toy. 3G was definitely worth waiting for. Edge is doable, but 3G is tangibly faster and very usable. I am a patch behind because the next update requires iTunes 8.0 and I’m not quite willing to do that yet. I need to rearrange some files first. My primary hard drive is nearly out of space. Again. Big video files are not helping my cause apparently.
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