For most Americans, the savings and loan industry is defined by the fraud, ineptitude and failures of the 1980s. However, these events overshadow a long history in which thrifts played a key role in helping thousands of households buy homes. First appearing in the 1830s savings and loans, then known as building and loans, encourage their working-class members to adhere to the principles of thrift and mutual co-operation as a way to achieve the 'American Dream' of home ownership. This book traces the development of this industry from its origins as a movement of a loosely affiliated collection of institutions into a major element of America's financial markets. It also analyses how diverse groups of Americans, including women, ethnic Americans and African Americans, used thrifts to improve their lives and elevate their positions in society. Finally the overall historical perspective sheds new light on the events of the 1980s and analyses the efforts to rehabilitate the industry in the 1990s.

The most prosperous period for thrifts came after World War II when millions of American families sought homes. The demand for mortgages caused some thrifts to grow rapidly into multi-billion dollar associations, while others remained smaller and community oriented. These changes, combined with increased competition from other financial institutions, led thrift leaders and government officials to consider allowing thrifts to move away from their specialized focus on providing home finance. In the early 1980s thrifts were deregulated, a move that was criticized following the failure of hundreds of associations. An analysis of how two thrifts dealt with deregulation indicates that problems of the decade were more complex, and as such places the S&L crisis in a proper perspective.

What is the investment opportunity from America's financial crisis? Somewhere north of one trillion dollars of debt--mortgages, credit cards, and other forms--will be written off and sold to buyers at pennies on the dollar. It gets even better: There are ways to buy that debt with no money of your own. Society's collective pain from this crisis means that it's unlikely to occur ever again on this scale. Investors with the right roadmap are poised to profit spectacularly. Bartmann lays out a step by step plan on how to find the best deals from the federal government, local Financial Institutions, and loan brokers. The spectrum of loans that are available include: credit card debt, consumer loans, business loans, commercial loans, and real estate loans. You’ve heard about the massive government bailout of the financial sector and its cost to taxpayers. Couple that with skyrocketing unemployment and a shrinking stock market and you might think this is a terrible time to invest in anything. But you’d be wrong. In Bailout Riches!, Bill Bartmann shows you how to invest in the bailout itself and take your own cut of the trillion-dollar pie. What does Bartmann know about bailouts? Only that the last big-time government bailout-involving the savings and loan crisis and the government’s Resolution Trust Corporation- made him a billionaire. This time around, the bailout is much bigger and opportunities for profit are much greater. "Who better to teach you how to prosper from this economic chaos than a man who actually took himself from ‘bankruptcy to billionaire’ during the last crisis." --Ken Blanchard, coauthor, The One Minute Entrepreneur "Bill Bartmann is more than a great financial success story; he is a phenomenal teacher who has helped thousands of my students achieve success. Bailout Riches will show you how you can prosper during these tumultuous times." --T. Harv Eker, author, New York Times #1 bestseller, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind "When the economy is in crisis, Bill Bartmann finds the diamond in the rough. The information in this book made him a billionaire fourteen years ago during the S&L crisis. Now the economy is cratering again and his methods are working better than ever. Read this book and discover a hidden source of wealth all around you." --David Lindahl, author of Emerging Real Estate Markets and Multi-Family Millions

The American government today supports a financial system based on mortgage lending, and it often bails out the financial institutions making these mortgages. The Dead Pledge reveals the surprising origins of American mortgages and American bailouts in policies dating back to the early twentieth century. Judge Glock shows that the federal government began subsidizing mortgages in order to help lagging sectors of the economy, such as farming and construction. In order to encourage mortgage lending, the government also extended unprecedented assistance to banks. During the Great Depression, the federal government made new mortgage lending and bank bailouts the centerpiece of its recovery program. Both the Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt administrations created semipublic financial institutions, such as Fannie Mae, to provide cheap, tradable mortgages, and they extended guarantees to more banks and financiers. Ultimately, Glock argues, the desire to protect the financial system took precedence over the desire to help lagging parts of the economy, and the government became ever more tied into the financial world. The Dead Pledge recasts twentieth-century economic, financial, and political history and demonstrates why the greatest “safety net” created in this era was the one supporting finance.

Includes a new foreword to the paperback edition.

Today's financial crisis is the result of dismal failures on the part of regulators, market analysts, and corporate executives. Yet the response of the American government has been to bail out the very institutions and individuals that have wrought such havoc upon the nation. Are such massive bailouts really called for? Can they succeed? Robert E. Wright and his colleagues provide an unbiased history of government bailouts and a frank assessment of their effectiveness. Their book recounts colonial America's struggle to rectify the first dangerous real estate bubble and the British government's counterproductive response. It explains how Alexander Hamilton allowed central banks and other lenders to bail out distressed but sound businesses without rewarding or encouraging the risky ones. And it shows how, in the second half of the twentieth century, governments began to bail out distressed companies, industries, and even entire economies in ways that subsidized risk takers while failing to reinvigorate the economy. By peering into the historical uses of public money to save private profit, this volume suggests better ways to control risk in the future. Additional Columbia / SSRC books on the privatization of risk and its implications for Americans: Health at Risk: America's Ailing Health System--and How to Heal ItEdited by Jacob S. Hacker Laid Off, Laid Low: Political and Economic Consequences of Employment InsecurityEdited by Katherine S. Newman Pensions, Social Security, and the Privatization of RiskEdited by Mitchell A. Orenstein