The Lever

April 2nd, 1987 was a windy spring evening in Washington, D.C.

and the air felt heavy, like a storm was about to blow in.

Ed Gray hurried to a meeting in the Hart's Senate office building, just Kitty Corner from the Capitol building.

A senior senator wanted to meet with him and told him to come alone.

As the chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Ed regulated savings and loans.

These were small banks that had been created in the 1930s to serve the needs of ordinary American households,

helping people get mortgages and savings accounts and pay their bills.

I'm Hugh Dano-Soe for first federal savings of Cleveland.

Did you know that you can now use your telephone to pay your bills each month?

But in the 1980s, the rules for S&Ls changed, allowing them to expand into new industries and make riskier loans. And many of them

were now in over their heads and close to failure. Ed Gray had been pushing legislation in Congress

that would help institute new regulations to get the SNLs back on track. Gray assumed that the

senator wanted to talk about that legislation. But it was

evening, and most people were leaving to go home. Something felt off. The senator met Ed at the door

to his office and led him through as though to a party. The walls of the senator's office were

decorated with Native American basketry

from his home state, woven to depict butterflies, turtles, and birds.

And also in the room were three more senators

who appeared to have been waiting for Ed.

Surprise!

Now wait a minute, where are the balloons, the cake?

...