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.

This first complete history of the American thrift industry traces its development from its origins in the mid-nineteenth century through the resolution of the savings and loan crisis in the 1990s. Because S&Ls offer affordable forms of consumer finance, these institutions have helped millions of people achieve the "American Dream" of home ownership. Although the thrift crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s dealt a severe blow to the financial health and reputation of the industry, this book reveals the ways government resolved it, and how the industry was reinvented in its aftermath.

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.

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.

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 bailouts during the recent financial crisis enraged the public. They felt unfair—and counterproductive: people who take risks must be allowed to fail. If we reward firms that make irresponsible investments, costing taxpayers billions of dollars, aren’t we encouraging them to continue to act irresponsibly, setting the stage for future crises? And beyond the ethics of it was the question of whether the government even had the authority to bail out failing firms like Bear Stearns and AIG. The answer, according to Eric A. Posner, is no. The federal government freely and frequently violated the law with the bailouts—but it did so in the public interest. An understandable lack of sympathy toward Wall Street has obscured the fact that bailouts have happened throughout economic history and are unavoidable in any modern, market-based economy. And they’re actually good. Contrary to popular belief, the financial system cannot operate properly unless the government stands ready to bail out banks and other firms. During the recent crisis, Posner agues, the law didn’t give federal agencies sufficient power to rescue the financial system. The legal constraints were damaging, but harm was limited because the agencies—with a few exceptions—violated or improvised elaborate evasions of the law. Yet the agencies also abused their power. If illegal actions were what it took to advance the public interest, Posner argues, we ought to change the law, but we need to do so in a way that also prevents agencies from misusing their authority. In the aftermath of the crisis, confusion about what agencies did do, should have done, and were allowed to do, has prevented a clear and realistic assessment and may hamper our response to future crises. Taking up the common objections raised by both right and left, Posner argues that future bailouts will occur. Acknowledging that inevitability, we can and must look ahead and carefully assess our policy options before we need them.