Interesting graphic (click to enlarge) from Bloomberg, comparing the present Subprime debacle versus the S&L; crisis. Here is an excerpt:
The $700 billion bailout of Wall Street’s subprime-tainted securities harkens back to the real- estate bets that sparked the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s. The geography’s the same, too.
Then, as now, the government created a taxpayer-funded enterprise to absorb the fallout from bad real-estate investments. A Bloomberg map of the hardest-hit areas shows that, with the exception of Nevada, regions with the highest foreclosure rates also had the most savings-and-loan failures, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The overlap shows that the aggressive lending and speculation that ignited the savings-and-loan meltdown persisted, at least in those areas, according to Paul E. Johnson, who was mayor of Phoenix from 1990 to 1994.
Source:
Subprime Devastation Retraces Path of S&L; Crisis in U.S. States
Jonathan Keehner and Bob Ivry, Bloomberg, Oct. 8 2008