Word: seidman
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...Seidman's political and promotional skills led Congress not only to put him in charge of the RTC as well as the FDIC in 1989 but also to insulate him from outside pressures. That helped a lot when Seidman and Treasury officials began feuding publicly about how best to clean up the S&L mess. At one point the Treasury floated a proposal that the bailout be financed by a fee on bank deposits. Seidman ridiculed the idea as "the reverse toaster theory -- instead of the bank giving you a toaster, you give one to them." The White House started...
...Seidman, whose six-year appointment expires in October, actually does want to move on. It's just that he hates to leave in the middle of a continuing bank crisis. "It's painfully clear that I would have been smart to get out earlier," he says, "but I am not as smart as I should be, and now I am enmeshed in such a day-to-day battle that it's hard to find the right date to leave...
Looking beyond the S&L scandal, Seidman is fighting for reform of the whole banking system. He argues that antiquated regulations have prevented U.S. banks from remaining competitive (Seidman's deep belief in the competitive system led him to join with banker Steven Skancke last August in publishing a cheerleading book, Productivity: The American Advantage). If the government could simultaneously broaden what banks are allowed to do but restrict their use of insured deposits, he says in a Seidmanian flight of metaphor, "we would have created sort of a minor miracle and ridden off in two directions at once, successfully...
...Seidman reaches his 70th birthday in April, and he has many interests that lie far from banking. He likes raising Corriente cattle, a kind used in rodeos. He likes growing raspberries. He likes making mobiles (two of which hang from the ceiling of his office). He has read all the 50 or so novels of his favorite author, Louis L'Amour, and now he is starting to reread them. "What do I like about him? The hero always wins. The women are always pure. The horses are great. They are out in the great West, and you learn...
...question of fairness could arise often this year if a prolonged Middle East war creates an oil-price shock and plunges the U.S. into a deeper recession. In a gloomy assessment of the banking outlook, FDIC chairman L. William Seidman warned Congress last week that more big banks could go bust in 1991 unless the current recession is "short and shallow." A run of large failures would swiftly bankrupt the FDIC's deposit-insurance fund, which stood at $9 billion last month. Even without a sharp downturn, Seidman said, the fund will fall to a record low of $4 billion...