William M. Isaac & Philip C. Meyer 
Senseless Panic 
How Washington Failed America

The truth about the 2008 economic crisis from a Washington
insider

The 1980s opened with the prime interest rate at an astonishing
21.5 percent, leading to a severe recession with unemployment
reaching nearly 11 percent. Depression-like conditions befell the
country, the entire thrift industry was badly insolvent and the
major money center banks were loaded with third world debt. Some
3, 000 bank and thrifts failed, including nine of Texas’ ten
largest, and Continental Illinois, which, at the time, was the
seventh largest bank in the nation. These severe conditions were
not only handled without creating a panic, the economy actually
embarked on the longest peacetime expansion in history.

In Senseless Panic: How Washington Failed America,
William M. Isaac, Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC) during the banking and S&L crises of the
1980s, details what was different about 2008’s meltdown that
allowed the failure of a comparative handful of institutions to
nearly shut down the world’s financial system. The book also
tells the rousing story of Isaac’s time at the FDIC.

* Details the mistakes that led to the panic of 2008 and
2009

* An updated paperback revision of the bestselling book on the
2008 economic crisis, including a fascinating new Epilogue

* Demystifies the conditions America faced in 2008

* Provides a road map for avoiding similar shutdowns and panics
in the future

* Includes a foreword by Federal Reserve Chairman Paul
Volcker

Senseless Panic is a provocative, quick-paced, and
thoughtful analysis of what went wrong with the nation’s banking
system, a blunt indictment of United States policy, and a road map
for making sure it doesn’t happen again.

Table of Content

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xv

Part One: No Calm Before the Storm 1

Chapter 1 Home Alone 3

Chapter 2 The Early Years (1978 -1981) 13

Chapter 3 The Savings Bank and S&L Crises 22

Chapter 4 Penn Square Fails 29

Chapter 5 The Butcher Empire Collapses 47

Chapter 6 Deposit Insurance Reform/Tackling Wall Street 53

Chapter 7 Continental Illinois Topples 64

Chapter 8 Preparing to Leave 86

Chapter 9 Lessons Learned 92

Part Two: Here We Go Again 99

Chapter 10 Policy Mistakes–1989 through 2007 101

Chapter 11 The Subprime Mortgage Problem 113

Chapter 12 SEC and FASB Blunders 118

Chapter 13 Schizophrenic Failure Resolution 131

Chapter 14 The $700 Billion Bailout 148

Chapter 15 Never Again 161

Afterword 177

Epilogue 180

Authors’ Notes on Sources 208

About the Authors 209

Index 211

About the author

William M. Isaac is Senior Managing Director and Global
Head of Financial Institutions for FTI Consulting and Chairman of
Fifth Third Bancorp. Both are positions he assumed after this book
was published in its hardcover edition. He served as Chairman of
the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation during the banking and
S&L crises of the 1980s, when some 3, 000 banks and thrifts
failed, including nine of the ten largest Texas banks as well as
Continental Illinois, then the nation’s seventh largest bank. Isaac
writes frequently for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times,
Forbes, Washington Times, Washington Post, New York Times, American
Banker, and other leading publications; testifies before
Congress; and makes regular appearances on leading radio and
television programs.