RTC Chief Backs Off $500-Billion Figure for S&L; Bailouts

Resolution Trust Corp. Chairman L. William Seidman, seeking to reverse an impression he left earlier this week, disagreed Wednesday with estimates by private forecasters that the savings and loan bailout will cost $500 billion once all the bills are in.

Instead, he said, he agreed with projections by the Administration that the cost of the bailout could run $90 billion to $130 billion, plus $70 billion or so in interest costs.

Seidman told a television interviewer Monday that he agreed with estimates by the General Accounting Office and some private forecasters that the total tab, including interest, could climb “in excess of $500 billion.”

But Wednesday the RTC chairman told reporters that he was merely trying to suggest that “you can come up with any number you want” if you stretch out interest payments enough. “I would not say the cost is in excess of $500 billion, and I don’t believe I said that,” he said.