ABSTRACT
One need cite nothing more than the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars that are now needed to honor the deposit-insurance guarantee for failed savings and loans to indicate the importance of a timely and accurate estimate of how much banking failures may cost the federal government. Although the budgetary cost per se is important, as is the distribution of the cost between the banking industry and taxpayers, there are other more subtle reasons why a timely and accurate estimate of the cost to close or reorganize banks is important.
