Troubled Temples of Thrift

A savings and loan rescue is under way, but is it enough?

A frantic support operation was going on in Washington last week, but it may not be enough to prop up a large part of the $1.1 trillion U.S. thrift industry. By a 402-to-6 vote, the House of Representatives approved a $5 billion cash infusion for the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, backstop for the country's 3,200 federally insured savings and loan associations. That would almost, but not quite, bring the FSLIC back to being merely broke; last year the fund was $6 billion in the red by normal accounting methods. Normal accounting, however, has long since gone by the boards...

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