Word: ls
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When Toyota introduced its Lexus LS 400 luxury automobile in September, it ran ads touting the $35,000 sedan as the ingenious brainchild of "1,400 perfectionists" and "close to faultless." Toyota was wise to hedge that claim. Because of safety defects, the company last week recalled all 8,000 of the Lexus LS 400s it has sold in the U.S. The Japanese carmaker made the decision after it received some customer complaints about loose wiring, a faulty cruise control and a malfunctioning brake light. The defects have caused no accidents or injuries, but the episode is an embarrassment...
...banks and the Government already own an awful lot of homes -- 250,000 would be a rough estimate -- which alone is reason to expect prices to be weak. The Resolution Trust Corp., set up to sell off the holdings of hundreds of failed S&Ls, is pledged to avoid triggering a price crash. Yet this is an arm of the same Government, after all, that actually lost money auctioning off confiscated drug loot...
That crisis could soon become worse, because new requirements designed to strengthen the thrifts could instead push many of them into extinction. Starting last week, S&Ls must greatly increase their capitalization as a hedge against losses from problem loans, interest-rate swings and bad investment decisions. Among other things, they will be required to maintain "risk-based capital" equal to 6.4% of their risky assets, such as shopping centers and fancy resorts. Because many thrifts are only marginally profitable, raising the funds to meet the standards may prove impossible for them. Some analysts warn that half the nation...
...Seidman, head of the Resolution Trust Corp. and chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, criticized Wall for keeping Lincoln open. As a result, the federally guaranteed cost of paying back Lincoln's depositors went up $1.3 billion, to $2.5 billion. Nationwide, the whole debacle of rescuing failing S&Ls will end up costing taxpayers about $300 billion...
Liquidating the S&Ls and shutting them down would have required $47 billion in "up-front cash," far more than is available immediately to the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., Wall said. However, by selling off the property of the failed S&Ls, regulators eventually would have recouped all but $22.8 billion on the December transactions, he said...