Senseless Panic How Washington Failed America

by Isaac , William M.; Meyer, Philip C.; Volcker, Paul A.

• ISBN13: 9781118431986
• ISBN10: 1118431987
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-07-16
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Panic is a thoughtful analysis of what went wrong with the nation's banking system-from mistakes made in the private sector as well as serious missteps by government at various levels of the government. Author George Issac, a Fed insider who wasn't involved in the botched decision making of 2008, was asked to testify before Congress about the bank rescue plan which he opposed. In this book, he presents a blunt indictment of the US policy. William Issac, who lead the highly successful efforts to control the great banking and S&L crises of the 1980s and early 1990s, believes that the 2008 crisis was in large part attributable to the misdiagnosis of the banking and S&L crises of the 1980s. He does not hesitate to identify the policy mistakes over the two decades from 1990 to 2008 that led to the crisis of 2008 and the bungling of the crisis by top government leaders, such as Secretary Paulson, that turned that crisis into a PANIC. The book concludes by discussing what must be done to prevent future crises and is highly critical of the current financial reform proposals from the Obama Administration and the Congress, arguing that they are weak and ineffective.

Author Biography

William M.Isaac is Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Financial Institutions for FTI Consulting and Chairman of Fifth Third Bancorp. Both are positions he assumed after this book was published in its hardcover edition. He served as Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation during the banking and SL crises of the 1980s, when some 3,000 banks and thrifts failed, including nine of the ten largest Texas banks as well as Continental Illinois, then the nation's seventh largest bank. Isaac writes frequently for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Forbes, Washington Times, Washington Post, New York Times, American Banker, and other leading publications; testifies before Congress; and makes regular appearances on leading radio and television programs.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xv
No Calm Before the Storm	p. 1
Home Alone	p. 3
The Early Years (1978-1981)	p. 13
The Savings Bank and S&L Crises	p. 22
Perm Square Fails	p. 29
The Butcher Empire Collapses	p. 47
Deposit Insurance Reform/Tackling Wall Street	p. 53
Continental Illinois Topples	p. 64
Preparing to Leave	p. 86
Lessons Learned	p. 92
Here We Go Again	p. 99
Policy Mistakes 1989 through 2007	p. 101
The Subprime Mortgage Problem	p. 113
SEC and FASB Blunders	p. 118
Schizophrenic Failure Resolution	p. 131
The $700 Billion Bailout	p. 148
Never Again	p. 161
Afterword	p. 177
Epilogue	p. 180
Authors' Notes on Sources	p. 208
About the Authors	p. 209
Index	p. 211
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