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“resolvinG tHe Crisis; restorinG tHe ConfiDenCe”
to the agency had been to leave the operations alone and to create a motto for it (“RTC—Resolving the Crisis; Restoring the Confidence” was emblazoned on each piece of stationery and virtually every wall); I never saw Casey at a meeting or even heard his name invoked in con- nection with any policy. While Casey was in the position, however, it was clear that the people who were making and executing policy knew what they were doing. The agency ran relatively smoothly, with little obvious contention at the management level; the resolution and disposi- tion programs were working well.
Tate, however, had to do things his way, although I was never quite sure what his way was. He was a force of nature, who decided to attend every important meeting and make a real, albeit negative, impact. The problem was that he was a man who knew everything (except about the RTC) and treated with palpable scorn the people who made the RTC work, totally disregarding their accumulated experience not only at the RTC but, in many cases, at the FDIC as well. In addition, he might have invented the concepts of rudeness and condescension. Those at the top of the day-to-day workings of the RTC were visibly disturbed by his incomprehensible interventions.
Some months after I had experienced Tate’s rudeness and generally counterproductive conduct at Executive Committee meetings, which Tate now chaired, he was still awaiting Senate confirmation as RTC chief when Kathy and I attended her Yale Law School reunion, at which the featured speakers were Bill and Hillary Clinton. (Both had been in Kathy’s graduating class—and Bill had made use of Kathy’s famously legible and comprehensive notes in one course.) At lunch, we were seated near Eugene Ludwig, a classmate of Kathy’s who had been one of the largest contributors, if not the largest contributor, to Bill’s presiden- tial campaign and was now serving as Comptroller of the Currency. That office chartered, regulated, and supervised all national banks and thrifts; he thus had a strong interest in the workings of the RTC.
During lunch, Ludwig came over to say hello to Kathy. And I like to think that Tate’s fate was thereby sealed. When he learned of my posi- tion at the RTC, Ludwig asked my opinion of how the agency was being
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