FCA Cottons to ‘Quango’

So who says the folks over at Financial Corp. of America can’t laugh anymore? Just a few days ago, several executives at the ailing savings and loan showed up to work wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with the word “Quangocrat.”

What is a Quangocrat? It’s what author Martin Mayer called FCA Chairman William J. Popejoy in a recent opinion column in The Times that discussed the federal government’s continuing efforts to bolster FCA’s loss-plagued operations.

According to Mayer, FCA is no more than what the ever-polite British call a “quango,” a Quasi-Autonomous National Governmental Organization, and Mayer called Popejoy a quangocrat.

Within days of the article’s appearance, FCA public relations chief Layna Browdy had about four dozen T-shirts made, and top execs have worn them on several occasions.

Popejoy says he wears his for tennis; others sport them for FCA’s traditional Friday “dress-down” day. “You can either take it with a sense of humor or let it get to you,” Popejoy says.

And is FCA a quango? Popejoy won’t say, but he notes: “We’re very much involved with the government.”