in the S&L crisis. Includes the contributions of a
diverse group of former regulators and scholars.
Calavita, Kitty.Big Money Crime: Fraud and Politics in
the Savings and Loan Crisis. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1999. Attempts to addresses the
often confusing and conflicting accounts of the
1980’s S&L crisis and posits effective arguments
about its causes.
Talley, Pat L.The Savings and Loan Crisis: An Anno-
tated Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood
Press, 1993. Annotated bibliography that includes
more than 360 titles on the S&L crisis published
between 1980 and 1992. Includes scholarly and
popular articles and should appeal to anyone re-
searching the crisis. Includes dissertations and
both author and subject indexes.
M. Casey Diana
See also Bush, George H. W.; Business and the
economy in the United States; Elections in the
United States, 1988; Reagan, Ronald; Reaganomics;
Scandals;Wall Street.
Scandals
Definition Public outcries in response to actual or
perceived violations of law or morality, usually
by public figures
While still recovering from the demoralizing effect of the
1970’s Watergate scandal, the United States was rocked re-
peatedly in the 1980’s with a wave of new scandals. These
ongoing scandals deeply affected the nation’s economy and
government.
The 1980’s was termed by some the “decade of deca-
dence,” and it was characterized by individualistic
greed and selfishness that gave rise to the appella-
tion “Me generation” and the famous “Greed is
good” speech in Oliver Stone’sWall Street(1987). Ac-
tual or perceived greed and self-interest drove many
of the political and economic scandals of the de-
cade, including Abscam, and Iran-Contra affair, the
savings and loan (S&L) crisis, and various insider
trading scandals on Wall Street. These scandals not
only brought into question the integrity of the insti-
tutions at the heart of the United States’ power struc-
ture but also hampered the ability of those institu-
tions to function.
Minor Political Scandals In 1980, President Jimmy
Carter lost his bid for reelection to Ronald Reagan.
Carter was unpopular in 1980 as a result of domestic
economic problems and his inability to bring home
the Americans being held hostage in Iran. His re-
election campaign was also hurt, however, by a scan-
dal involving his flamboyant older brother, Billy
Carter. Billy was revealed to be a paid agent of Libya
who had received hundreds of thousands of dollars
from dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi. Later, in 1983,
it was revealed that President Reagan had “cheated”
in his final debate with Carter by obtaining a copy of
Carter’s briefing notes for the debate. This scandal,
referred to as “Debategate” in reference to the Wa-
tergate scandal, proved to be relatively minor com-
pared to others that would affect Reagan and other
national politicians.
Also in 1983, a particularly lurid sex scandal re-
sulted in a recommendation by the House Commit-
tee on Ethics that representatives Dan Crane and
Gerry Studds be reprimanded for unsuitable rela-
tionships with teenage congressional pages. After
his admirable role in heading up the Tower Commis-
sion investigating the Iran-Contra affair, in 1987
John Tower was nominated as secretary of defense,
but a scandal involving habitual alcohol abuse, wom-
anizing, and questionable financial ties to the de-
fense industry destroyed his chances. That same
year, presidential hopeful Senator Gary Hart lost his
lead when the Miami Herald printed a photograph
of him with model Donna Rice. In 1989, scandal
forced Speaker of the House of Representatives Jim
Wright to resign after an investigation found finan-
cial irregularities centering on improper gifts and
using sales of books to bypass limits on speaking fees.
Also in 1989, a scandal involving Democratic Massa-
chusetts representative Barney Frank hit the air-
waves after Frank admitted his relationship with a
male prostitute. These scandals, however, paled in
comparison to the major scandals of the decade.Abscam In 1981, news broke of a Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI) high-level sting, code-named
Abscam, that had begun in 1978. Undercover agents
posing as Middle Eastern businessmen had offered
government officials large sums of money in return
for granting favors to a mysterious (and fictional)
sheikh named Kambir Abdul Rahman. Ultimately,
the sting, which was the the first large-scale operation
designed to trap corrupt public officials, resulted in846 Scandals The Eighties in America