Reply #28: Robbing S&Ls is as good as robbing banks... [View All]

[Octafish]

... to the BFEE. Still, a trillion isn't what it used to be.



Savings and Loan Scandal

Here are some facts on the infamous S&L scandal of the eighties which we are still paying for.

* The Savings and Loan scandal is the largest theft in the history of the world.

* Deregulation eased restrictions so much that S&L owners could lend themselves money.

* The Garn Institute of Finance, named after Senator Jake Garn, co-authored the deregulation of the industry and received $2.2 million from industry executives.

* Neil Bush, George Bush's son, never servered time in jail for his part in running an S&L into the ground.

* Represenative Fernard St. Germain, who was head of the House of Representatives banking, co-authored the deregulation and was voted out of office after other questionable dealings and was sent back to D.C. as an S&L lobbiest.

* Charles Keating, when asked if massive lobbying efforts had influenced the government officials, he replies "I certainly hope so."

* The rip-off began in 1980 when the government raised the federal insurance on S&L's from $40,000 to $100,000 even though the typical savings account was only around $6000.

* Some of the seized assets were a buffalo sperm bank, a racehorse with syphilis, and a kitty litter mine.

* James Fail invested $1000 of his own money to purchase 15 failing S&L's. The government reimbursed him $1.85 billion in federal subsidies.

* It sometimes took over 7 years to close failing S&L's by the government.

* When S&L owners who stole millions went to jail, their sentances were typically one-fifth that of the average bank robber.

* The goverment bail out will cost the taxpayers around $1.4 trillion dollars when it is over.

* If the White House had stepped in and bailed out the S&L's in 1986 instead of delaying until after the 1988 elections, the cost might have been only $20 billion.

* With the money lost from the S&L scandals, the government could have provided prenatal care for every American child for the next 2,300 years.

* With the money lost from the S&L scandals, the government could have purchased 5 million average homes.

* The authors of "Inside Job", a book about the S&L scandal, found criminal activity at every S&L they investigated.

Facts were taken from"Inside Job" and "It's a Conspiracy!" by the National Insecurity Council.

SOURCE:

http://www.inthe80s.com/sandl.shtml