Question: what was the us economy like in the 1980s

title: Early 1980s recession
text: One consequence of the FHLBB 's lack of enforcement abilities was the promotion of deregulation and of aggressive , expanded lending to forestall insolvency . In November 1980 , the FHLBB lowered net worth requirements for federally insured S&Ls from 5 % of deposits to 4 % . The FHLBB lowered net worth requirements again to 3 % in January 1982 . Additionally , the agency required S&Ls to meet those requirements only over 20 years . The rule meant that S&Ls less than 20 years old had practically no capital reserve requirements . That encouraged extensive chartering of new S&Ls since a $2 million investment could be leveraged into $1.3 billion in lending .