Special Report: Crisis in Banking: The Trail Boss of the Bailout

In command: a sharp-talking gunslinger straight out of Louis L'Amour

At the age of 69, on the threshold of the biblical life-span of threescore years and ten, L. (for Lewis) William Seidman has reached the enviable state of not having to prove anything to anybody. He does not need to make a lot of money because he's already a millionaire, with houses in Georgetown and on Nantucket and a 15,000-acre cattle ranch in New Mexico. He doesn't need to show he's fit because he still does 50 push-ups before work every morning. ("After you've done that, anything else for the rest of the day is a pleasure.") And as for his...

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