Welfare For Billionaires?

A report from the Resolution Trust Corporation is expected this month, and it figures to stoke congressional ardor to find scapegoats for the S&L; mess. The report will examine transactions during 1988, when private investors, at the government's request, scooped up troubled S&Ls; and then received whopping federal subsidies for doing so. In 94 cases, entrepreneurs like Ronald ! Perelman, owner of Revlon, and Texas billionaire Robert Bass wound up reaping, on average, $78 for each dollar they invested. Some who received this windfall have argued that their intervention was cheaper than allowing the bankrupt S& Ls to pile up losses....

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