European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 11, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes columns Anthony Lewis taxpayers pay for so greed and arrogance not Many have noticed the Bottom line of presi Dent Bush s plan to Rescue the savings and loan Indus try. Over the next 30 years it is going to Cost us the taxpayers upward of $100 billion. We and our children will pay for the greed Folly and arrogance of those who caused the crisis. They arc the so people themselves the Reagan administration ideologues who did t want to regulate them and the congressmen who did their Best to sabotage regulation. The Bush plan Calls for a new Federal Agency to raise $50 billion by issuing 30-year Bonds. Interest on those Bonds will come to something around $5 billion a year or a total of $150 billion. The interest is to be covered in part by higher so insurance premiums but Only in Small part experts say. Most of it will come from the Treasury meaning the taxpayers. The Public Burderi May in fact be higher. Last year regulators issued $40 billion in debt and other obligations to rescues is and it is not Clear How those carrying charges will be covered. The $50 billion to be raised now May not be enough. How did it All happen it is a nauseating Story reflecting the greed is Good culture of the Reagan years and the ethical insensitivity of some important Mem Bers of Congress among them Jim Wright of Texas now the speaker of the House. Savings and Loans used to be modest institutions. Unsophisticated savers could put their Money in accounts insured by the Federal government and could borrow to buy a Home. Then in 1980 rep. Fernand St Germain d-r.i., then chairman of the House banking committee got a conference committee to raise the insurance limit on any individual s Deposit in an so from $40.000 to $ 100,000 As the Industry wanted. As a result people with Large fortunes began putting $100.000 packages into different so a each insured against loss. A is competed for that big Money by raising their interest rates. To pay the interest they wanted to go into risky ventures that might bring big returns. In 1982 St Germain and sen. Jake Garnr Utah pushed through legislation allowing the a is to make High risk Loans. Soon financial cowboys were taking Over Many of the institutions and lending Money for such things As Texas real estate developments. Cowboys and thieves. Honest graft a recent Book by Brooks Jackson tells some hair raising stories. Donald Dixon took Over an so in Vernon Texas. It paid for him and his wife to maintain a yacht air William Safire the grew a l Blout planes a Hunting club and a California Beach House that billed the company $100 a Day for Flowers. In the end 96 percent of the so s Loans were in default. When Federal regulators got to the Vernon so Donald Dixon telephoned Jim Wright in Washington. Wright telephoned Edwin Gray chairman of the fed eral Home loan Bank Board which regulates a is and asked him to delay action. Gray infuriated Wright by going ahead and taking Over in Vernon. Gray said much about Wright in an interview by Michael Binstein published last october in Regardie s Magazine. He said Wright had telephoned to complain about Bank Board supervisors once saying he had heard that one Man was a homosexual. Or. Wright denied that he had accused any individual but said that he had relayed complaints from Texas about Over zealous and sadistic regulators Wright made those Calls at a time when he was helping to hold up action on a desperately needed Bill to recapitalize the so insurance fund. The so lobby did t like the Bill and it has Many friends in Congress made with Campaign contributions to incumbents of both parties. In his interview Gray also described How David Stockman president Reagan s budget chief blocked his attempts to get More examiners and said there should be fewer in the age of deregulation. Gray was replaced in 1987 by a Man acceptable to the so lobby Danny Wall. Then Secretary of the Treasury James Baker telephoned Wright in fort Worth to Tell him the news. President Bush s Reform plan is a genuine step away from that sickening record away from political in fluence and toward old fashioned Bank regulation among other things. But we Are still going to pay for the Fatu Ity of the Reagan years. And Jim Wright is still speaker of the House. New York times White House shows its skill of press inoculation let s lift the veil today and sneak a look at How an adept White House can set the big feet of journalism tromping on each other s toes. Acting on a tip a few weeks ago i called c. Boyden Gray the president s lawyer and ethics overseer and asked him for his financial disclosure forms for the past three years. He said sure. Ten Days passed i called again. This time he turned Over the papers but with the top sheets missing for the most recent year. That piqued my curiosity. I obtained the missing pages for the year 1987 from the office of government ethics and was immediately struck by the Date of the submission the Day before election Day 1988, six months after the deadline. What was buried in this document Worth keeping from Issue hungry democrats throughout the election Campaign that was too complicated for a pundit who has trouble filling out his application for a White House press pass the times Bureau decided it was a Job for Jeff Gerth a reportorial Hawkshaw. Sure enough after probing and sifting my colleague discovered that the vice president s lawyer had not Only been serving As Board chairman of a half Bil lion Dollar Media conglomerate but had been receiving substantial outside earned income in violation of White House pol icy and George Bush s Campaign promises. Good Story hypocrisy in High places. But the reporter wanted to be extra responsible and go Over All the details with Gray. On a thursday like a couple of ethical scan pos we Laid out our Trou bling information and were promised de tailed answers. No need to Rush into print with a lot of Loose ends give the Guy a Chance. Next Day Friday unbeknownst to us the White House arranged an inter View with Bob Woodward like me a certified Bigfoot the sobriquet of Media biggies and Walter Pincus of the Washington Post. Gray gave these two old pros what sophisticated news handlers Call an inoculation Story. What a Joy it is to see really professional Media manipulation. An Inocula Tion Story is an authorized leak of just enough embarrassing information to justify a front Page Story below the fold but because the source is so forthcoming he gets full credit for Candor. The report ers so used Are not told that the White House purpose is to take the wind out of the sails of a much More thorough Story about to break. Friday night the half Story appears in the Post the headline Tut tuts about Gray s unwillingness to put his miscellaneous holdings in a Blind Trust hardly significant. The new York times for competitive reasons must then run the full and damning Story by Gerth in its late saturday editions not distributed in Washington. A second Day times Story on sunday received a necessarily lesser display. The inoculation did the trick. Meanwhile on sunday Boyden Gray called me at Home to determine whether i planned to write for the next Day. A trusting soul i said yes. He then called the Wall Street journal and pulled the editorial trigger of Bigfoot Robert Bart Ley. On monday morning the journal was in print denouncing a column its editorialist had not yet read. At the White House press Secretary s morning briefing this preemptive defense by a respected Bigfoot was cited As proof of rectitude along with the announcement that Gray would resign his Board chairmanship Only for appearance Sake. Another or Triumph. President Bush could then say without being challenged that his lawyer did the Correct thing every year in asking what was  he is at Best misinformed. Gray had Good reason to drag a foot in submitting his forms throughout the Campaign year without the required extensions Only now do we discover from the close inspection of those documents that he failed to disclose $87,000 in deferred in come from his corporation in previous years. Under a 1982 department of Justice ruling reiterated wednesday by an embarrassed director of the office of government ethics All deferred income must be disclosed in the year earned. Gray s concealment of or his repeated failure to disclose a whopping chunk of his outside income is not the appear Ance of wrongdoing. It was the fact of doing wrong or making a hugely advantageous mistake and no approval of this was asked or Given. Thanks to Swift damage control and the acquiescence of an incompetent of fice of government ethics c. Boyden Gray won t be rebuked much less punished. The chief Bush ethics adviser does t even have to admit a mistake and the new president is entitled to a Hearty laugh at All us big feet. New York times