For all who do remember, but may have forgotten some of the details, and for all who have little or no knowledge about, the following 13-minute documentary concerning the Keating-5 scandal, and the role John McCain played in a mess that ultimately cost the American taxpayer $200 billion is absolutely essential viewing. It's every bit as essential that this be passed around the entire country.
http://www.keatingeconomics.com/
An anecdote. In November of 1978, I opened my real estate appraisal shop, E. Tubbs & Associates, in San José. My marketing was aggressive. I would cut the legs off any and all competitors by providing a higher quality, more accurate appraisal at a lower cost. The property owner would be called the evening of the day my office received the request and we would make an appointment to see the property the next day, at a time that was convenient to me and my staff, not the homeowner. That enabled me to have the report personally placed in the client's hands within 24 hours of having seen the subject property.
I also wanted nothing whatsoever to do with mortgage brokers. No appraiser can provide an honest report to a mortgage broker, whose only interest was in the fees that were earned by the successful transaction of the loan. I wanted banks and S&Ls only. The appraisal requests were transmitted to my office from the appraisal departments of the respective institutions, not the loan origination centers or branches. In the early 80s, my client base consisted of Wells Fargo, Bank of the West, TransAmerica, Union Bank, and a few credit unions. Whether a loan was made was not as important to the appraisal departments as to whether the submitted report was completely defensible. I loved the arrangement.
At that same time, a new S&L came onto the scene, one that was proving a dominant force in the market: Lincoln Savings and Loan. Their SF regional office was headquartered in a brown stuccoed, 2-storied office building on the corner of Stevens Creek Blvd and Meridian, in San José. My major competitor, Frank Hudson (now deceased) had it all, and I tried diligently to win a share of that very lucrative pie. It took me more than a year to get approved as an approved appraiser for Lincoln S&L. But before I received even one request, the company was out of business, a very consequent part of the S&L crisis.
The "-Keating-5' scandal, of which John McCain was the most intimately related member, was an unfolding crisis that I paid very close attention to.
Ed Tubbs, Reno, NV
