Warning: Further - and Maybe Bigger - Federal Bailouts Ahead

Risky loans and sloppy supervision could lead to crises that dwarf the $300 billion savings and loan fiasco

After more than two troubled years as the Government's top savings and loan regulator, M. Danny Wall fell victim to the nation's spreading S&L; scandal. The clamor for his ouster mounted last month after lower-ranking bank examiners told Congress that Wall had unduly delayed for 21 months a Government takeover of high-flying financier Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings & Loan Association, whose collapse could cost taxpayers $2.5 billion. Last week Wall finally bowed to the pressure and resigned as director of the Office of Thrift Supervision. He had been victimized, Wall complained, by "simplistic efforts to find a scapegoat to shoulder the...

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