Savings and Loan Debacle Articles/Bibliography

(Note – I will build this particular entry over time with a serious of articles, books and now videos on the S&L crisis of the 1980s. It will take a while and therefore you might come back to the site every once in a while to see  how it’s been updated.

The idea is to provide insights into how that financial crisis/scandal came about, what were the major themes and consequences. The S&L crisis is not exactly like the current sub-prime mess, but there are many parallels. In its day, the S&L scandal was the biggest financial scandal in US history costing tax payers somewhere – it has never been fully determined – between $500 million to $1 billion +. Since then, the more recent crises have dwarfed the S&L debacle so that in comparison with what is going on today, that scandal is small potatoes.

If we think of the financial industry as a kind of commodity chain – from `producers’ to `consumers’ so to speak – the S&L scandal was located most specifically among `the producers’ – the banks, regulators, property assessors, shyster lawyers who helped frame the legal framework, etc. The sub-prime crisis involves more directly `consumers’ down the chain.

Anyway, I’ll start putting up articles and readers can compare those distant events with the current ones.)

________________

Collapse of the Savings And Loans Association – I thank Dr. Thayer Davis, who posted this on San Jose State University Economics Department website for this particular entry which depends heavily on Martin Mayer’s excellent The Greatest Ever Bank Robbery: The Collapse of the Savings and Loan Industry

Silverado – Ch 3 Wilmsem by Steven Wilmsen – This is a chapter from Wilmsen’s thin volume on the subject. For those particularly interested in the `Silverado’ story, the whole book is worth reading.  The Silverado story, in parts is covered in other books as well, usually just a few pages. Will cite some of those sources later.

Too Big To Jail? Executives Unscathed As Regulators Let Banks Report Criminal Fraud – This piece compares indictments during the S&L scandal with those of the current financial crisis. It overstates how many big wigs got indicted and prosecuted in the S&L scandal. Other than Keating and Milken, most of the big fish, including those in Colorado, got away clean. Still it is an interesting and worthwhile piece.

The Prince Silverado Series

1.  Silverado 1 –  The Michael R. Wise Legacy To Colorado Banking

2.  Silverado 2 – Kermit Mowbray – From Federal Bank Regulator to New Mexico Bird Watcher

3.  Silverado 3 – Ken Good – (part one) Son of a Kansas Itinerant Methodist Minister

4.  Silverado 3a – Ken Good – (part two) Son of a Kansas Itinerant Methodist Minister

5.  Silverado 4 – Larry Mizel – Silverado Linked Developer Turned Philanthropist

6.  Silverado 4a. – Larry Mizel – Silverado Linked Developer Turned Philanthropist and `The CELL’

7.  Silverado 5 – Silverado: The Sequel. The Failure of New Frontier Bank of Greeley

8.  Silverado 6 – More on the Failure of New Frontier Bank of Greeley

9.  Silverado  7 – Matsch – Daughter Killed in Hawaii

10. Silverado 8 – Larry Mizel and Spencer Browne