Most of America tuned in Tuesday to watch the jury verdict in the marathon O.J. Simpson trial. And federal regulators were no exception.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan interrupted an interview with reporters from U.S. News & World Report to flip on the television and catch the not-guilty verdict. Jonathan Fiecther, acting director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, watched in Cincinnati, where he was meeting with National Housing Services leaders. Comptroller of the Currency Eugene A. Ludwig got the news from his secretary as he dashed off for a meeting at the Treasury Department.
Ricki Helfer and Andrew C. Hove, chairman and vice chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., were having lunch together and did not turn on the television.
"It didn't even register to me," Mr. Hove said Friday. "I haven't paid any attention to that damn trial."
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No one on Capitol Hill is threatening to make credit unions help banks and thrifts bail out the Savings Association Insurance Fund, but Norman E. D'Amours isn't taking any chances.
The National Credit Union Administration chairman fired off a letter last month to Rep. Marge Roukema, R-N.J., the chairwoman of House Banking's financial institutions subcommittee.
"Credit unions have not been part of the problem's creation, and unlike banks and thrifts they will not benefit from its proposed solutions," he wrote.
When the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund was recapitalized in 1985, Mr. D'Amours noted, "no federal funding or guarantees were needed."
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Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin bestowed the Alexander Hamilton award Friday on former Deputy Secretary Frank Newman. The award, named after the nation's first Treasury secretary, is the department's highest for an employee.
Mr. Newman joined the Treasury in 1993 from Bank of America. He resigned this summer and started at Bankers Trust New York Corp. last month as senior vice chairman.
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High hopes, caring parents, and section 8 housing helped propel him to college, said Arthur Agee Jr., a star of "Hoop Dreams."
Mr. Agee, a subject of the award-winning documentary about two boys and their dreams of playing professional basketball, testified Thursday at a hearing in Chicago conducted by Rep. Rick Lazio, R-N.Y., who heads House Banking's housing and community development subcommittee.
Mr. Agee said the section 8 program, which allows low-income families to live in privately owned, federally subsidized housing rather than in government-owned projects, was a blessing to him and his family. Rep. Lazio is sponsoring a bill to allow flexible use of federal housing funds.
