The Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation failed spectacularly during the 1980s, costing taxpayers perhaps $200 billion. In this award-winning analysis, Mark Rom examines the political causes of this "thrift tragedy." He directly confronts - and rejects - the dominant scholarly "public choice" view that public officials were motivated mainly by self-interest.

Instead, Rom argues that politicians and bureaucrats generally acted in the "public spirit" by attempting to obtain the common interest as they saw it. Using new evidence and innovative methods, Rom demonstrates that FSLIC's failure unfolded because of commitments that officials had made in the past and their uncertainties about how to fulfill these obligations in the future.