L. William Seidman | |
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Born |
Lewis William Seidman April 29, 1921 Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA |
Died | May 13, 2009 Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA |
(aged 88)
Alma mater | University of Michigan |
Occupation | economist, financial commentator, former head of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation |
Lewis William Seidman (April 29, 1921 – May 13, 2009) was an American economist, financial commentator, and former head of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, best known for his role in helping work to correct the Savings and Loan Crisis in the American financial sector from 1988-1991 as head of the related entity, the Resolution Trust Corporation. He also worked as an economic adviser during three separate Administrations of United States Presidents - that of Gerald Ford, that of Ronald Reagan, and that of George H.W. Bush. He was lauded by both Republicans and Democrats for his work in cleaning up the frauds of the Savings and Loan disaster, but was pushed out of American government by the George H.W. Bush Administration for disclosing the full extent of the crisis to the United States Congress and taxpayers.
Seidman was born on April 29, 1921 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the son of Esther (Lubetsky) and Francis Edward Seidman, a founder of the accounting firm Seidman and Seidman. Seidman received his undergraduate education at Dartmouth College, his law degree from Harvard University, and his Master's Degree In Business Administration from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. He married a onetime University of Michigan beauty queen named Sarah "Sally" Berry - later and better known as Sally Seidman; they later had six children. He served in the United States Navy as an officer on a destroyer in the Pacific theater during World War II and won a Bronze Star.