This research considers the savings and loan crisis as a public policy issue. The issue is discussed in the context of the following questions:
1. What is the nature of the issue?
2. Who have been the dominant actors in the formulation and adoption of policy to deal with the issue?
3. How has the manner in which the policy has been implemented affected the original problem, and how has it affected the attainment of policy goals?
4. Has the nature of the policy changed in terms of objectives, beneficiaries, sponsors, and so forth?
5. What changes in the policy or its implementation are desirable in the spring of 1991?
In contemporary society, government policy exerts a significant influence on almost all aspects of daily life. Prospects for the financial well being of individuals, thus, are, to a great extent,
. . . determined by public policy, by those decisions which shape contemporary environments in communities, workplaces, homes, and schools. Public policy sets parameters for the mode and character of industrial and agricultural production, corporate management, and individual behavior (Milio 3).
The savings and loan crisis was brought into sharp focus for the American people in the summer of 1989, when it had developed to a point where the Bush Administration and the Congress could no longer afford to behave as if the problem did not exist. By that time, hundreds of savings and loan associations were either insolvent, or were in danger of becoming insolvent in the relatively near future (Dentzer and Plattner 20 22). Knowledgeable sources contended that the thrift industry as a whole was losing between $300 million and $400 million each month.
Although the crisis became apparent to the American public in the summer of 1989, it was full blown by that time, having developed into a serious problem by the mid 1980s. The problems being experienced by the thrift industry were attributed to a ...