“And so, when more than 1900 S&L's went belly-up in the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover—and a most willing Congress—created the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to protect depositors in the future.”
― The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
― The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
“It was the defection of the English Crown, the immense booty rapidly obtained by a few adventurers, like the Cecils and Russells, and a still smaller number of old families, like the Howards, which put England, with all its profound traditions and with all its organic inheritance of the great European thing, upon the side of the Northern Germanies. It was inevitable, therefore, that in England the fruits should first appear, for here only was there deep soil. That fruit upon which our modern observation has been most fixed was Capitalism. Capitalism proceeded from England and from the English Reformation; but it was not fully alive until the early eighteenth century. In the nineteenth it matured.”
― The Free Press
― The Free Press
“Deals began to go sour, and 1979 was the first year since the Great Depression of the 1930s that the total net worth of federally insured S&Ls became negative. And that was despite expansion almost everywhere else in the economy. The public began to worry.”
― The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
― The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
“Since the S&Ls were required to have $1 in capital for every $33 held in deposits, an appraisal that exceeded market value by $1 million could be used to pyramid $33 million in deposits from Wall Street brokerage houses. And the anticipated profits from those funds was one of the ways in which the S&Ls were supposed to recoup their losses without the government having to cough up the money—which it didn't have. In effect the government was saying: "We can't make good on our protection scheme, so go get the money yourself by putting the investors at risk. Not only will we back you up if you fail, we'll show you exactly how to do it.”
― The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
― The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
“The Gam-St. Germain Act allowed the thrifts to lend an amount of money equal to the appraised value of real estate rather than the market value. It wasn't long before appraisers were receiving handsome fees for appraisals that were, to say the least, unrealistic.”
― The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
― The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
Michael A. Acree’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Michael A. Acree’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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