THE SAVINGS-AND-LOAN DEBACLE

The roots of the savings and loan debacle lie in overregulation of the industry resulting from the attempt to promote widespread home owners hip. Actions by policymakers unable to admit earlier mistakes compound ed the problem throughout the 1980s. Attempts by political decisionmak ers to shift blame to the private sector, coupled with a failure to ac knowledge the institutional pressures that led congressmen and S & L o wners and managers to act as they did, leave taxpayers vulnerable to t he repetition of S & L-type crises in other industries.