Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/largest-bank-failure-in-u-s-history-preempts-any-bailout-plan Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Another blow was dealt to the ailing American finance system as Washington Mutual Bank was seized overnight by the U.S. government. By morning its assets were sold off to JPMorgan Chase. Business reporters detail the sudden and drastic move. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JEFFREY BROWN: It was the largest bank failure in U.S. history, as overnight federal regulators seized Washington Mutual, the nation's largest savings and loan, with more than $180 billion in deposits.But in a quick turnaround, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation then sold Washington Mutual to JPMorgan Chase.To walk us through this, we turn to Roben Farzad, senior writer and columnist for BusinessWeek who joins us tonight from Richmond, Va.Well, Roben, first, give us a little background on Washington Mutual, a little bit about its history, and how did it get so big? ROBEN FARZAD, BusinessWeek: Jeff, Washington Mutual actually was, oddly enough, on its 119th anniversary, I believe today, of its foundings in the Pacific Northwest a long, long time ago, in 1889.But, really, the '90s were the boom-boom decade for this company, in that it went from being a sleepy little thrift and securities arm to buying Great Western Bank, which was big in the West Coast, and then parlaying that into a string of dozens of acquisitions, which then got it fat on cheap deposits.And then, lo and behold, the mortgage market starts skyrocketing, and that got it flush at first, but cocky, as we know, which is what happened to other firms, and it ended up making a lot of bad loans that it thought would be better loans.