Special Report: Crisis in Banking: A Bunch of Delinquents

Henry Gonzalez, populist chairman of the House Banking Committee, says a conspiracy of selfishness blocks reform

Q. What are the effects of all this financial disarray on the average American?

A. There are definite signs of fear. For 50 years, the American citizen thought he never had to worry about one thing: his little deposit in the bank. Well, he's worrying about it now, and that is not good. You shake that public confidence, and no telling where events will lead us.

Q. Will the banks' problems ultimately be as serious as the thrifts'?

A. That depends on how quickly we can overhaul our entire financial system and bring some law-and-order to what has been a law...

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