As head of bank supervision for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in the 1980s, I saw the damage caused nationally and locally by excessive leverage and bank failures – both small and large.
As President of our Bank over the past 18 years, I’ve witnessed the anguish of individuals and businesses as they struggled to manage the downside effects of too much leverage. Trends Over the past two decades there has been a systematic increase in debt and leverage within the United States, involving all major sectors of the economy.