Nowadays “greenwashing” is a popular term. We are aware of companies such as BP Oil and many others being accused of greenwashing, claiming eco-consciousness or launching products and services that are less than legitimately green. But few people know that the term was originally coined to criticize hotels that encouraged guests to reuse towels for environmental reasons but made little or no ef...

D uring the early 1990s bank examiners were frequently accused of being too strict with banks in New England, thereby contributing to a credit crunch in the region.1 If supervisors of New England banks were being unusually strict, they may have been reacting to public complaints of lax supervision of the savings and loan industry in the 1980s. Such complaints were rife as New England banks’ loa...