Dimensions: 6'' x 9'' 72 pages AEI Press  (Washington) Publication Date: November 1990 Paperback ISBN: 0-8447-7002-7

This title is currently out of print, but online booksellers sometimes have used copies available. See links below.

With estimates of losses reaching hundreds of billions of dollars and still rising, the Savings and Loans crisis seems likely to produce the greatest governmental financial loss in the history of our nation. The central causes of this debacle, according to the author, lay in the decision to substitute government regulation for the disciplines of the market.

This monograph proposes to correct this mistake through the introduction of market incentives--a private system of deposit guarantees, supported by risk-based deposit insurance premiums and backed by the enormous capital of the banking system itself. Decisions to close insolvent banks and S&Ls would become market judgments, driven by market signals, rather than the judgment of a government adminstrator.

In addition to a clear, straightforward explanation of the proposal, the book includes comprehensive tables detailing how the plan would work and explaining the feasibility of risk-related deposit insurance.

Peter J. Wallison is a resident fellow at AEI.