Page 591 - WhyAsInY

“resolvinG tHe Crisis; restorinG tHe ConfiDenCe”
ies of the RTC as. . . . (For reasons of propriety, I omit their scatological rhyming sobriquet for the legislation.) It didn’t matter, though. The con- versations were smooth, and I was offered and soon accepted the position of Assistant General Counsel–Real Estate, some of the responsibilities of which are described below.
For now, I must again salute my valiant and non-complaining wife, who for more than two years started each of her Monday morning work- days by driving me to the Delta, the USAir, or—I hate to say it—the Trump shuttle by, at the latest, 7:45 a.m., and ended each of her Friday workdays by picking me up at LaGuardia in the height of rush hour traffic. That was no fun for her (when one puts aside my continuous, scintillating conversation, something that I was continually asked to do), but the shuttle trip turned out to be a snap for me. You see, this was all prior to the endless lines and searches that were brought to us by the horrifying events of 9/11. I could arrive ten minutes prior to departure time, carrying only a briefcase, greet an attendant (many of whom got to know me by name), and be ticketed for and occupying seat 21C, my favorite, in no time flat. One attendant at Washington National would actually print out my ticket for 21C as soon as she spotted me.
On many mornings, I would reach my desk at headquarters before any of my staff of nine attorneys arrived, a fact that sometimes irritated me but, for the most part, filled me with a peculiar sense of satisfaction.
As did this new job. It was, in fact, the best and most satisfying job that I ever undertook.
Why FIRREA?
If you’ve stayed with me thus far (and I assure you that I appreciate your Herculean efforts), not only do I owe you my thanks, but—so that you’ll better understand my new job and, more important, be prepared for the next crisis relating to real estate—I owe you a brief and, hopefully, sim- ple exegesis concerning the very complicated conditions, actions, and inactions that gave birth to the “S&L Crisis,” conditions, actions, and
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