Other People's Money: The Inside Story of the S&L Mess [Hardcover]

Paul Zane Pilzer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In their hard-hitting, credible expose of the government and private mismanagement and fraud that ushered in the national S&L disaster in the mid-'80s, real estate developer and New York University School of Business professor Pilzer and Deitz, business editor of the Dallas Times Herald , address the damage this calamity has done to the trust Americans place in financial institutions and the merit of saving money. First offering a concise history of the savings industry in the U.S., the authors go on to deplore its deregulation in the 1970s and '80s, arguing that this led to a virtually unlimited flow of brokered funds and risky investments by incompetents and crooks. Accusing the Federal Home Loan Bank Board of an extensive cover-up of such shenanigans, Pilzer and Deitz sensibly call for reform of the savings deposit system, repayment of stolen savings to investors and incentives to restore our confidence in the virtue of thrift.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Along with Dietz, the business editor of the Dallas Times Herald, Pilzer, a partner in a real estate syndicate, provides a readable and comprehensive history of the savings and loan industry from its roots in ancient times to the present, with a focus on the debacle that now plagues it. Stephen Pizzo's Inside Job ( LJ 9/15/89) provides much of the same general information; this account includes more history of the industry. It focuses more on Texas, while the earlier book is California oriented. The books complement each other as a result, providing a wealth of details on the role of the federal government and legislation on this problem. A review of another book on the savings and loan crisis, James Adams's The Big Fix , will appear in our next issue.
- Ed. -- Steven J. Mayover, Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 269 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067168101X
• ISBN-13: 978-0671681012
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,479,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Zane Pilzer completed college in three years and received his M.B.A. from Wharton Graduate Business School in fifteen months at age twenty-two. At age twenty-four, he was appointed a professor at New York University.While employed as Citibank's youngest officer at age twenty-two and its youngest vice-president at twenty-five, Pilzer started several entrepreneurial businesses and earned his first million before age twenty-six.He has been an appointed economic adviser in two presidential administrations. In 1985 he testified before Congress, warning that the S & L problem would grow to a $200 billion-dollar disaster. Congress didn't listen, and in 1989 Pilzer wrote Other People's Money (Simon & Schuster), which was critically acclaimed by The New York Times, The Economist magazine, and Nobel prizewinner John Kenneth Galbraith.Pilzer's second book, Unlimited Wealth (Crown Publishers, Inc., 1991, 1994), explained how we live in a world of unlimited physical resources because of rapidly advancing technology. After reading Unlimited Wealth, the late Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, said that he was "amazed at Pilzer's business capacity" and his "ability to put it into layman's terms." Unlimited Wealth has been published in Japan, Taiwan, and the Russian Republic.But the greatest accolades have come for God Wants You to Be Rich, which appeared on The New York Times Business bestseller list, was featured on the cover of national magazines such as Success, and was the subject of a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal.Today, Pilzer is a contributing editor to two economic journals, an adjunct professor at New York University, and the Founder and Publisher of Zane Publishing, Inc., a leading CD-ROM educational publisher.He has been a regular commentator on CNN and National Public Radio, and has appeared several times on the Larry King Live! television program.