During the decades from 1982 to 1992, Texas banks failed at a rate unprecedented in United States history, even including the Great Depression of the 1930s. In all, 506 Texas commercial banks failed (accounting for 36% of all failures nationally), including seven of the ten largest banks in Texas. In this fascinating insider's account, Joseph M. "Jody" Grant, former chairman and chief executive officer of Texas American Bancshares, Inc. of Fort Worth (the seventh largest), tells the story of the collapse of Texas' major banks. He vividly re-creates the three-year struggle to save his own organization, Texas American Bancshares. This sobering account makes a compelling case against the FDIC's handling of Texas' financial crisis. In Grant's view, the bank failures have deprived Texas of the engine of capital that spawned the nation's third largest industrial economy, built Texas' major cities, bankrolled its entrepreneurs, and provided a pool of talented business and civic leaders. Grant's book will be thought-provoking reading for everyone in the financial community, as well as for students of Texas history and of business and government relations.

We exist in an era of great change and widespread uncertainty in which course-determining decisions lie with organizational leaders; in this continually shifting climate we require their courage to take action. Billions of dollars are spent annually on developing leaders, yet despite these efforts, most organizations report a shortage of leaders - a leadership gap - and estimates of leadership failures approach fifty per cent. Authored by some of the best names in the subject area, this book addresses this issue and provides readers with an innovative approach to learning leadership skills, merging theory with practice to enable a better understanding of this complex and significant subject. It emphasizes a balance of skills, the critical role of feedback in learning and development, and innovative thoughts on developing women leaders. Taking an international perspective, this outstanding text will be an invaluable resource for those studying leadership, organizational behaviour and human resource management as well as those on specialist masters and MBA courses, and will be especially useful for those undertaking the difficult task of leading within organizations.

Texas pride, like everything else in the state, is larger than life. So, too, perhaps, are the state’s challenges. Lone Star Tarnished, 2nd edition approaches public policy in the nation’s most populous "red state" from historical, comparative, and critical perspectives. The historical perspective provides the scope for asking how various policy domains have developed in Texas history, regularly reaching back to the state’s founding and with substantial data for the period 1950 to the present. In each chapter, Cal Jillson compares Texas public policy choices and results with those of other states and the United States in general. Finally, the critical perspective allows us to question the balance of benefits and costs attendant to what is often referred to as "the Texas way" or "the Texas model." Jillson delves deeply into seven substantive policy chapters, covering the most important policy areas in which state governments are active. The second edition includes completely rewritten first and second chapters, as well as updates throughout the book and revised figures and tables. Through Jillson's lively and lucid prose, students are well equipped to analyze how Texas has done and is doing compared to selected states and the national average over time and today. Readers will also come away with the necessary tools to assess the many claims of Texas’s exceptionalism.

Deals with the result of a study conducted by the FDIC on banking crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s. Examines the evolution of the processes used by FDIC and RTC to resolve banking problems, protect depositors and dispose of the assets of the failed institutions.

50 year since founding the University of Texas, they have witnessed major evolutions in the world of publishing.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which originally was intended to prohibit barriers to black registration and voting, has been hailed as a triumph for civil rights and as a catalyst for the election of minorities to public office in both the Deep South and the urban North. To advance its objective, federal courts instructed many cities to change from at-large to single-member district electoral systems as a way to ensure that minorities had a reasonable chance to elect representatives of their choice. In the first book to critique the implementation of this landmark legislation in a major American city, Ruth Morgan examines its effect on local governance over forty years in Dallas and shows that it had unintended consequences for racial politics, representation, and public policy. Breaking from studies that measure the success of the VRA in terms of increased minority representation, Morgan assesses the consequences of the Act for Dallas city government—and for the wider interests of minorities as well. While endorsing the original intent of the VRA, Morgan believes that this intent was subverted by subsequent amendments to the Act and by the courts' attempts to advance the political standing of particular minority groups. She argues that court-imposed single-member districts have created in Dallas a city council infected with parochialism and careerism—a result of members no longer having to compromise to win citywide votes—and have had an adverse impact on governmental effectiveness and voter turnout. With corruption and cronyism now rampant, voting rights legislation and litigation have ultimately failed to fulfill the hopes and aspirations of the unempowered, and the district system has created an incentive for continued racial separation. Governance by Decree offers a pointed assessment of the complexities and contradictions produced by the voting rights law, while at the same time calling for the federal judiciary to exercise restraint in imposing its will when it lacks the capacity to make choices that are inherently political. Morgan's powerfully argued case study should inspire much debate and inform forthcoming congressional deliberations over the renewal of the preclearance section of the VRA in 2007.

Texas' economic growth has consistently outpaced that of the United States as a whole over the past quarter century. What accounts for the state's economic success? And does it come at a price to be paid in the future? Ten-Gallon Economy features new research on regional economic growth and some surprising findings on Texas' unique tax and banking institutions, booming energy and export sectors, vibrant labor market, expanding demographics and human capital, and growing border economy. Texas has a dynamic economy, large yet flexible, but it is still subject to the booms and busts of the energy sector, which exercises an outsized influence. Taxes are low but regressive relative to national benchmarks, which fuels growth but can inhibit investment in education and health. Meanwhile, Texas, as one of only five minority-majority states, is poised to reap a big demographic dividend if it invests wisely in the coming generation of mostly Latino workers. Taken together, the chapters in this volume provide unique insight into the economy of the nation's second-largest state, laying out some of the choices facing policymakers charged with safeguarding the Texas growth premium for future generations.

The study of happiness is at the nexus of four major scientific developments: the growing field of Positive Psychology which researches the conditions that make people flourish; advances in the biological and affective sciences which have contributed to the understanding of positive emotions; Positive Organizational Scholarship, an emerging discipline aimed at investigating and fostering excellence in organisations; and findings from economics indicating that traditional markers of economic and societal well-being are insufficient. The Oxford Handbook of Happiness offers readers a coherent, multi-disciplinary, and accessible text on the current state-of-the-art in happiness research. This volume features ten sections that focus on psychological, philosophical, evolutionary, economic and spiritual approaches to happiness; happiness in society, education, organisations and relationships; and the assessment and development of happiness.

This far-reaching study shows that operating efficiencies are not what are driving today's unrelenting bank merger mania. It suggests that bank mergers and consolidation may have effects that are contrary to consumer and non-financial business interests, such as lower rates of interest, increasing fees, and tighter credit constraints. Dymski recommends several new policies to apply to the evaluation of prospective mergers.

“Full of schadenfreude and speculation—and solid, timely history too.” —Kirkus Reviews “This is a portrait of capitalism as white-knuckle risk taking, yielding fruitful discoveries for the fathers, but only sterile speculation for the sons—a story that resonates with today's economic upheaval.” —Publishers Weekly “What's not to enjoy about a book full of monstrous egos, unimaginable sums of money, and the punishment of greed and shortsightedness?” —The Economist Phenomenal reviews and sales greeted the hardcover publication of The Big Rich, New York Times bestselling author Bryan Burrough's spellbinding chronicle of Texas oil. Weaving together the multigenerational sagas of the industry's four wealthiest families, Burrough brings to life the men known in their day as the Big Four: Roy Cullen, H. L. Hunt, Clint Murchison, and Sid Richardson, all swaggering Texas oil tycoons who owned sprawling ranches and mingled with presidents and Hollywood stars. Seamlessly charting their collective rise and fall, The Big Rich is a hugely entertaining account that only a writer with Burrough's abilities-and Texas upbringing-could have written.