This book investigates the systemic failures, regulatory negligence, and political corruption that precipitated the collapse of the United States savings and loan industry during the 1980s. Martin Mayer, a veteran journalist and author specializing in financial systems, utilizes his extensive access to regulatory documents and industry insiders to construct a detailed account of the crisis. He argues that the deregulation of the financial sector, combined with flawed oversight and opportunistic behavior by industry executives, created a catastrophic environment that necessitated a massive taxpayer-funded bailout. The text serves as both a historical record of the scandal and a critique of the legislative responses that followed.

Experts and financial historians frequently cite this work as a definitive, if dense, chronicle of the S&L crisis. Readers often note that the prose requires a baseline understanding of financial terminology to fully grasp the complexities of the regulatory failures described.