WASHINGTON -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Tuesday the Bush administration should look back to the 1980s savings and loan crisis for lessons on settling the housing crisis by committing taxpayers' money to the project.

"I think if you're going to deal with a situation like this it's an issue for appropriated funds of the Treasury to set up something like the Resolution Trust Corporation, which as you remember was very successful in resolving the S&L crisis," Greenspan said on CNBC television.

The RTC was set up to liquidate assets of troubled savings and loan associations that had been declared insolvent by the Office of Thrift Supervision. It operated between 1989 and 1995 and closed or helped resolved hundreds of thrifts, many of which had gotten into trouble through sloppy lending practices.

The Bush administration so far has adamantly refused to commit public money to help settle a housing crisis in which millions of Americans are expected to lost their homes through foreclosure.

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