Read more
The savings and loan crisis and the banking troubles of the 1980s and early 1990s were not primarily due to fraud, deregulation, inadequate supervision, overly exuberant lending, abrupt changes in tax policies or a host of other short-term causes. All of these factors certainly exacerbated and, in some cases triggered, the problems of depository institutions. But the underlying fundamental reason for the thrift crisis and banking troubles, argues banking and financial analyst David S. Holland, was a form of excess capacity that resulted from many decades of protection from the rigors of competition and the marketplace.
Dr. Holland shows that the protection was due to geographical and product limitations and a deposit insurance system that became focused on the prevention of failures of individual institutions. By 1980, the depository institutions industry was ripe for a severe culling-a culling that legislators and regulators probably could have done little to avoid, although they might have channeled and controlled it better. How the government, the industry, and the public reacted to the culling is an instructive and fascinating study in human nature for all those concerned with banking policy and regulation.
List of contents
Preface
Introduction
Excess Capacity
A Turbulent Time
A Crisis and a Shakeout: An Overview
Too Big to Fail: Sound Bite in Search of a Policy
Texans Do It Bigger
FIRREA and the FDIC as Top Dog
The Troubles Peak
FDICIA and Its Aftermath
An Assessment
Appendix A: The Texas Banking Crash: Fate of the Ten Largest Organizations
Appendix B: The Thrift Industry in Crisis
Appendix C: The Banking Industry in Trouble
Appendix D: Interest Rates and Inflation
Appendix E: Major Banking Laws (1980-1996)
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the author
DAVID S. HOLLAND has been a bank consultant and an editor of a financial industry newsletter. Currently, he is an analyst with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Dr. Holland has written extensively, with articles in such journals as The Golembe Reports and FDIC Banking Review.
