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Cover design: C. Wallace
Copyright © 2015 by John Bovenzi. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Bovenzi, John F.
Inside the FDIC: thirty years of bank failures, bailouts, and regulatory battles / John F. Bovenzi.
1 online resource.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-118-99412-2 (pdf) – ISBN 978-1-118-99410-8 (epub) – ISBN 978-1-118-99408-5 (hardback) 1. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. 2. Deposit insurance-United States. 3. Bank failures-United States. 4. Banks and banking-Government policy-United States. 5. Banks and banking-State supervision-United States. I. Title.
HG1662.U5
368.8 '5400973–dc23
First and foremost I'd like to thank my wife, Erica, who reviewed every word many times over. Without her insights and support, this book would not have been possible.
I'd also like to give particular thanks to my former colleagues and friends, Art Murton, Maureen Sweeney, and Jim Wigand, each of whom reviewed the entire manuscript and provided me with critically important comments and suggestions.
Others important contributors include April Breslaw, Diane Ellis, and Gary Hindes. A great many other former colleagues and friends spent their personal time reviewing specific chapters, helping me remember events, and ensuring that I got my facts straight.
Thanks to Annie Moffett and Matt Rees for great editorial assistance, to Oliver Wyman, and in particular Steve Szaraz, for supporting my efforts, and to Tula Batanchiev and her staff at Wiley for their support in publishing this book.
I'd like to thank my cousin, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, an exceptionally talented and accomplished writer, who helped guide me through the book publishing process.
I'd also like to thank my three sons, Adam, Eric, and Greg, who lent moral support throughout the process.
Any mistakes that remain are my own.
We have heard little from the behind-the-scenes people who were on the front lines as the events of 2008 unfolded. Their actions can calm the storm and bring fair treatment to inherently unfair situations, or they can compound the problems. These often-maligned bureaucrats can either display courage, integrity, and fair play or contribute to an environment of fear, anger, and chaos.
This book doesn't focus on the arcane and mind-numbing details of capital, liquidity, and the other technical parts of a bank regulator's job. Instead, it puts human faces on the causes and effects of financial crises. These are personal stories of real people grappling with complicated issues while under enormous pressure, of individuals trying to ensure that they and others are treated fairly by our government, and of individuals misusing the system to serve their personal interests.
