A run on IndyMac

(Via CJR's Ryan Chittum)

When IndyMac imploded, depositors did what anyone would do: they went to take their money out.

FDIC will save you below $100,000, but some had their life savings there - and they got bit.

70-year-old Charles Tengeri, a retired teacher from Pasadena, who arrived at IndyMac’s headquarters at 4 a.m. and grabbed one of the first spots in line.
Tengeri had more than $200,000 in five certificate of deposit accounts— his life savings, he said. After waiting five hours, he left with a check for $171,000.

This man is atypical - but it's jarring to think that we now live in an age where a bank will just go belly up and take part of your CDs with it. The image of a mob surging into a bank to demand their savings is something that's hard to juxtapose with the happy talk coming out of the likes of Dana Perino.

The NYT quote Ryan pulls at the end is the best. The FDIC had a list of 90 banks that were looking shaky in the first quarter of this year.

IndyMac wasn't on that list.

As in, they got more than 90 to worry about.