The 119-year-old Washington Mutual Inc., the largest U.S. savings and loan, was closed by the U.S. government on Thursday in what is by far the largest failure of a U.S. bank. WaMu’s banking assets were sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co for $1.9 billion.

Reuters reports:

Thursday’s seizure and sale is the latest historic step in U.S. government attempts to clean up a banking industry littered with toxic mortgage debt. …Washington Mutual was shut by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was named receiver. …[The bailout] comes four months after JPMorgan acquired the failing investment bank Bear Stearns Cos at a fire-sale price through a government-financed transaction. …Washington Mutual’s collapse is the latest of a series of takeovers and outright failures that have transformed the American financial landscape and wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars of shareholder wealth.

Already, investment bank Bear Stearns has collapsed; the government has taken over mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and insurer American International Group Inc.; investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has gone bankrupt; and brokerage house Merrill Lynch has been bought by Bank of America.

TheTrumpet.com columnist Robert Morley wrote on Tuesday about what this means for America, and the world:

When three of America’s five princes of high finance—Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch—all fail within a matter of months, surely it is a sign that global finance has, as the [National] Post said, “reached a turning point.”America’s days as the global economic kingpin are over.For those unwilling to accept this truth, what will it take to cause reality to sink in? The demise of either or both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, America’s two remaining large investment banks? Just the fact that America is down to two boggles the mind and should be proof enough of America’s fall from power. How about if a couple of big savings and loans like Washington Mutual or National City closed up shop? Would that be enough proof that the system is doomed? Or would it take something more dramatic? Commercial banks Citigroup (formerly the world’s biggest bank) and Wachovia have been referred to as “dead men walking.” If one of the large commercial banks were to collapse, would that be enough proof? The Royal Bank of Canada has said that 300 U.S. banks will go bankrupt over the next couple of years. It made that estimate back in July.Proof is on the way.

The failure of Washington Mutual is the latest proof, and there will be more.

Read about the cause of these banking failures, and what the outcome will be, in Joel Hilliker’s column “The Cause of the Crisis People Won’t Face.”