Flattering the New Boss
Who says the government isn’t getting enough pats on the back for cleaning up the nation’s savings and loan mess?
Last Tuesday, Columbia Savings & Loan ran a newspaper ad on “short and sweet” six-month certificates of deposit. It appeared four days after regulators pulled the plug on the insolvent Beverly Hills thrift and turned over its operation to the much maligned Resolution Trust Corp., the nation’s S&L; cleanup agency.
“Consistent competitive rates,” the ad boasted, “thanks to efficient and dedicated new management.”
What’s Fair Is Fair
Alvin K. Ohls has another R-word he wants people to use.
Now that the term recession is even being used by such optimists as President Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, the retired naval supply specialist from Marina del Rey is launching a one-man campaign to coin the phrase Reagancession to describe the nation’s economic ills.
“If we can have Reaganomics, why not a Reagancession, “ Ohls says in a letter to newspapers as well as network anchormen Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings.
Presumably Regancession will be available to those who want to blame the former Treasury secretary.
Drive Still in Low Gear
Another one-man grass-roots campaign is being started in Pebble Beach, Calif., by William A. Burkett, California’s banking superintendent under Gov. Goodwin J. Knight in the 1950s.
Burkett wants to get rid of L. William Seidman, outspoken head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Resolution Trust Corp., who has run afoul of members of the Bush Administration. Seidman’s six-year term expires in October.
In a notice to 1,000 newspapers, TV stations, congressmen and senators, Burkett announces formation of the Bank and S&L; Depositors League and calls for President Bush to fire Seidman, although the President has no power to do that.
Short of that, Burkett demanded that “the 70-year-old Mr. Seidman resign immediately.”
Burkett, 76, said he’s receiving three to four phone calls a day from supporters.
No Flowers and Candy?
Realizing that there is no love lost between Americans and Saddam Hussein, a Glendale company is selling 20 Valentine’s Day cards that mention the Iraqi leader.
Most of Custom Expressions’ cards are meant to be sent to troops in the Gulf.
One shows Hussein’s picture in a sandbox and the greeting, “Every playground has it’s bully, but playtime’s over for this chump.” Another describes the allied forces as having “attacked him, I’rolled and I’raq’d him.”
