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Title: Not What You Think
Review: This in an interesting book and not one that only focuses on the nightly news sound bite about the S&L in Texas with three speed boats. This author examines why the S&L situation happened. The answers he uncovers do not paint the picture that the politicians want us all to think too much about. Basically the Federal government changes the rules in relation to capital requirements for S&L based on pressure from contributors and a Reagan policy of deregulate everything. Once that happened the mess started. The biggest mistake the government made was deregulating a business that they were on the hook for if they went under. The vast majority of S&L's were actually doing fine until even more regulation came out regarding capital requirements - all in all the politicians had as much to do with the issue as the bankers. The book is much better at explaining this then me, if you are interested in the topic or would like to broaden your understanding of the issues I would start here.
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