There cannot possibly be 42 billion outstanding. No way. Perhaps 4.2 million?

The company said the proposed changes do not affect the payouts to creditors and would not require putting the modified plan to a new vote of creditors.

Ending the bankruptcy quickly would require that mediation would be limited to one issue: the claim by shareholders that hedge funds that negotiated Washington Mutual’s bankruptcy plan engaged in insider trading.

Shareholders accuse the hedge funds of using information gleaned from negotiating Washington Mutual’s bankruptcy plan to score big profits trading the company’s securities.

Shareholders believe their claim of insider trading could be remedied by preventing the hedge funds from collecting some of the roughly $2 billion they are owed by Washington Mutual.

That claim could be resolved after the company exits bankruptcy without any impact on other creditors, Washington Mutual’s attorney, Brian Rosen, said on Tuesday.

Washington Mutual, its creditors and shareholders are scheduled to discuss how to proceed at a status conference on Thursday in Delaware’s bankruptcy court.

The company said the proposed changes do not affect the payouts to creditors and would not require putting the modified plan to a new vote of creditors.

Ending the bankruptcy quickly would require that mediation would be limited to one issue: the claim by shareholders that hedge funds that negotiated Washington Mutual’s bankruptcy plan engaged in insider trading.

Shareholders accuse the hedge funds of using information gleaned from negotiating Washington Mutual’s bankruptcy plan to score big profits trading the company’s securities.

Shareholders believe their claim of insider trading could be remedied by preventing the hedge funds from collecting some of the roughly $2 billion they are owed by Washington Mutual.

That claim could be resolved after the company exits bankruptcy without any impact on other creditors, Washington Mutual’s attorney, Brian Rosen, said on Tuesday.

Washington Mutual, its creditors and shareholders are scheduled to discuss how to proceed at a status conference on Thursday in Delaware’s bankruptcy court.

The play acting tag was not in reference to their dilly dallying in court alone but also in reference to their ability to accumulate legal fees. Enron raised the ire of creditors with the legal fees it piled up, notably Mr. Susman's $900-an-hour bills. [eventually trimmed to the statutory maximum of $500] In that criminal case against Andersen, shareholder and pension fund suits, and suits against former Enron executives and board members, the costs mounted. These attorneys consistently search for Enron-Level litigation making for an enduring industry out of play acting. That includes all attorneys on both sides of this case..This will never end, or at least feel like it will never end

Dimon expects the New York powerhouse to be able to make a major purchase in mid-2006. He stops short of saying that's what he is shooting for.

Dimon likes the West Coast and Southeast banking markets. WaMu is one of the few banks in both areas.

"The only way to get the West Coast is WaMu, unless you think Bank of America or Wells Fargo is for sale," said Frederick Cannon, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in San Francisco.

Those banks are not for sale, and JPMorgan could not afford them if they were.

Neither is WaMu, Killinger said, but the company's relatively low value on the stock market — $43.8 billion — indicates it could be within reach of the New York financial giant.

"They view themselves as having reshaped the management team, and they want to give them a chance to demonstrate what they can do

Another point in favor of independence is the biggest hire, former JPMorgan executive Stephen Rotella, who became president of WaMu this year and brought other JPMorgan executives with him. Chances are good they would rather stay independent than return to the company they left. My comment: HA!

If it does, my wife will kill me. I told her I wanted to wait until this thing has ended, then take all the documentation I received and weigh it, to see if I could actually, literally receive a 'ton of junk mail'. Unfortunately, when the prospect of a settlement was real, she made me promise that by the end of 2011, all that crap would be gone. Bummer.