A little over a year ago, the FDIC seized the assets of Washington Mutual on the bank's 119th birthday.  it was the largest US bank failure (Reuters), and the roots of the failure had a bit to do, ironically, with the message of a WaMu ad campaign--The Power of Yes:

The Seattle Times breaks down the WaMu failure in today's paper, and, in a story now all too familiar, it appears that the thrift was all to happy to say yes just about anybody:

WaMu lured borrowers with a very low interest rate of about 1 percent. But this "teaser" rate was good only for one month. After that, the option ARM could have far higher interest rates than conventional 30-year fixed-rate loans.

With each minimum payment, unpaid interest piled up. Once the debt grew too large, WaMu canceled the minimum-payment option. You could suddenly get a new bill for two or three times what you had been paying.

Another aspect of the option ARM made it even riskier. Washington Mutual broke the most basic rule of lending, a rule as fundamental as "all lifeguards must be able to swim":

It would give you an option ARM even if you couldn't afford to repay it. You only needed enough income to cover the minimum payments.

Read parts 1 and 2 of the Seattle Times coverage here and here. 

And read the indispensable Barry Ritholtz's take here.