Remember Wachovia? It was everywhere on the East Coast. Huge branches, fancy ads, and that iconic stagecoach logo. Then the 2008 financial crisis hit, and that stagecoach started to wobble.
Wachovia had made a terrible bet on risky mortgages. They bought a company called Golden West Financial at the absolute worst time. Suddenly, they were drowning in bad loans.
Investors got scared. Depositors started to panic. The bank was hemorrhaging money faster than you can say “bailout.” Something had to give.
