Fixed rates in a volatile world -- How insured S & Ls fail -- Dick Pratt figures out how to run a bankrupt federal insurance fund -- The false spring of 1983 -- Real estate lending 101 -- Permissive loan fee accounting : the linchpin -- Mammon against the God of home ownership -- Ed Gray tries to cope and the world goes galloping by -- The big Texas disaster -- The laws trash the trash -- Silverado, Lincoln and CenTrust -- The junk bond connection -- Fraud and misconduct 101 -- Wall Street remakes the mortgage business -- Politics as usual : everybody fiddles while the FSLIC burns -- Danny Wall and the 1988 deals -- FIRREA -- What caused how much of the losses? -- High rollers -- Evaluating deregulation -- Because banks are where the money is -- The importance of counting -- Avoid complexity that no one can understand -- Supervision and enforcement -- Regulation can't tame technology or market forces -- Deposit insurance reform -- The future of thrift institutions -- Appendix : dynamics of a broke S & L.