As the US government steps in to sure up American financial capitalism with corporate socialism its worth reflecting back on the last major banking meltdown, the savings and loan crises of the 1980's. Saving and loans were institutions oriented towards serving the community, a safe place for individuals to save, and a friendly place average folks could go for a mortgage. If you've ever seen the movie "it's a wonderful life" think of the bank that Jimmy Stewart ran. these institutions were insured by the US government. then in the 1980's deregulation of the S&L industry turned them into vehicles for quick money and bad loans. It was only a short bit of time until the loans started to bring down the institutions to the tune of 125 billion US government payments.
One chapter of that mess was the political scandal of the Keating five, five US senators who supported Charles Keating, who headed Lincoln Savings and Loan. He had made $300,000 as political contributions to them and they may have interfered with investigations of his bank. The whole story is complex but we are hearing a lot these days from one of these senators: John McCain
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I'm glad to see you have a blog. Your a very clear and effective writer. I love how u built up the the story and nailed the conclusion! I grew up hearing of the Keating Five in the backround of discussions on the S&L scandal, but never made it as far as knowing what they where. So thanks for the info. (...me shaking my head, oh John McCain, he still thinks Vietnam was a good idea...me shaking my head)...peace
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