In early April 1999, I received a response from the FDIC to my request for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The data below is taken from two listings (both dated February 5, 1999) on the Resolution Costs for failed Thrift organizations from 1985 to 1995 as paid out by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) and the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC).

• 1985-35 S&Ls-$791,781,000

• 1986-48 S&Ls-$2,641,909,000

• 1987-47 S&Ls-$5,728,890,000

• 1988-212 S&Ls-$59,637,844,000

• 1989-12 S&Ls-$189,830,000

• 1993-1 S&L-$383,158

TOTAL FSLIC =355 S&Ls. $69,373,584,000

• 1989-37 S&Ls-$5,853,123,000

• 1990-316 S&Ls-$34,688,627,000
• 1991-231 S&Ls-$31,254,558,000

• 1992-68 S&Ls-$6,438,240,000

• 1993-27 S&Ls-$1,507,772,000

• 1994-64 S&Ls-$6,418,670

• 1995-3 S&Ls-$257,641,000

TOTAL RTC=746 S&Ls - $86,418,631,000

Of the $154.5 billion, $28.1 billion dollars (22%) was borne by the Thrift Industry, leaving the U.S. taxpayers with a bill of $126.4 billion dollars (78%).

This DOES NOT include the interest on the national debt due to the bail-out costs or the interest costs of bond issues for which we taxpayers will be paying for the next thirty years.

However, in addition to the above material, the April 8, 1999 package contained a July 1996 GAO Report on a Financial Audit of the RTC's 1994 and 1995 Financial Statements (GAO/AIMD-96-123). The opinion letter in this report contained tables and other information which closely match the data in the lists and in the March 15, 1999 Financial Statement. The GAO report also contains information on the known and estimated interest expenses.

Resolution Costs: Table 3 on page 12 for example, shows the direct and indirect (tax benefits) costs for resolving the S&L crisis. In the GAO Report, the tax benefits cost is listed as $7.5 billion rather than the $6.2 billion of FDIC March 1999 statement. Of the $64.7 billion paid out by FSLIC from 1985 to 1989, $42.7 billion came from the taxpayers (66%) and $22 billion (34%) from the Thrift Industry. Of the $87.9 billion paid out by the RTC from 1989 to 1995, $81.9 billion came from the taxpayers (93.2%) and $6 billion (6.8%) from the Thrift Industry.

Interest Costs: Table 4 on page 19 shows the known and estimated interest expenses related to the S&L crisis. The bottom line is that the U.S. taxpayer has paid or will pay $76.2 billion dollars in interest on bonds issued to pay the S&L resolution costs and has paid or will pay over the next 28 years approximately $209 billion in interest costs on the appropriations needed to pay the resolution costs (i.e, the National Debt). Thus the known or estimated interest expenses for the U.S. taxpayer totals $285.2 billion dollars.