WaMu announced today that they lost $1.14 billion in the first-quarter and CEO Kerry Killinger said that nothing of this scale had happened “since the Great Depression.” Comforting!

“Nothing of this scale has happened since the Great Depression,” Chief Executive Kerry Killinger said at WaMu’s annual meeting. “This is the toughest credit cycle I have seen in my years in the industry.”

WaMu says it will cut 3,000 more jobs, including that of Mary Pugh, chair of their finance committee who “had been fiercely criticized for failing to protect Washington Mutual from overexposure to subprime and other risky mortgages,” according to Reuters.

A Loss and a Shake-up at Washington Mutual [NYT]
(Photo:Maulleigh)

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