From Publishers Weekly
Beginning as a small, conservative Southern California savings-and-loan, American Savings was transformed into the nation's largest thrift, a juggernaut worth $30 billion. When its parent company, Financial Corporation of America, filed for bankruptcy in 1988, the S & L's portfolio comprised billions in bad debt. The company's chief architect was Charles Knapp, a stunt pilot whose wild-eyed growth formulas got American Savings in deeper trouble with Ed Gray, head of Reagan's ineffectual regulatory agency, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Bill Popejoy, who took over as the thrift's chairman, accepted a bailout in 1988 by the Bass Group, which profited handsomely from the industry's collapse and the federal regulators' abysmal failures. In a disquieting tale of corporate greed and government neglect, Robinson, former bureau chief of American Banker , places the crisis-triggering deregulation within a larger context of economic mismanagement that included years of bloated federal budgets and overexpansion.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Prior to deregulation, American Savings was a typical savings and loan association located in Southern California. After the laws were changed in the early 1980s, American Savings began an investment program that resulted in its becoming the largest thrift institution in the nation. However, as in the case of other banks, shady deals and poor investments led to disaster. Robinson, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer, researched the debacle and in a very readable style provides the history of this one bank and its relationship to the national problem. Because of its case-study focus, the book is more readable than other books on the savings and loan crisis. Highly recommended for business collections.
- Steven J. Mayover, Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Steven J. Mayover, Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
