Who Robbed America? A Citizen's Guide to the Savings & Loan Scandal, by Michael Waldman and the staff of the Public Citizen's Congress Watch, gives the reader both a full portrait of that scandal as well as a number of specific steps which can be taken by individuals and groups in order to prevent such a scandal from ever occurring again.
As Joan Claybrook writes in the Preface to Waldman's book, the work "is about crime in the suites, the consequences of deregulation, and why the American taxpayer is being stuck with a $500 billion bailout of bankrupt savings and loans" (p. ix). What makes this particular economic crisis and scandal so special is that it resulted from attitudes and policies flowing from the highest echelons of government. As Ralph Nader writes in his Introduction, "This book is a call to action about the S&L scandal --- the most outrageous example of banking corruption and governmental deregulatory complicity in American history. In my time observing Washington, I have not seen such arrogant disregard from the White House, Congress and corporate world for the interests and rights of the American people" (p. xiii).
This scandal, the book says, is not the result of a single individual's greed, nor is it a matter of the system breaking down and passively allowing such corruption. What has happened in the Savings & Loan scandal is that the call to corruption, the call to greed, the call to, finally, ripping off the American people, came from the highest office in the government. The people, in fact, are responsible to the degree that they failed to perceive that the man they elected to the White House --- Ronald Reagan---brought with him to the White House a philosophy of greed and laissez-faire government which would allow such a scandal to occur. As we read: "Without doubt, the most telling symbol of this wheeling and dealing run amok is the S&L scandal. It is the massive bill, handed to the taxpayers, f...