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Bull by the Horns
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Bull by the Horns

Fighting to Save Main Street from Wall Street and Wall Street from Itself

Sheila Bair
Free Press, 2012
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

Former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) chief Sheila Bair holds nothing back in her assessment of Wall Street, Washington, and the internecine politics and conflicting agendas shared by regulators, lawmakers, bankers and politicians. She is plainspoken, candid, and not one of the boys. In office, this made her the subject of rumors and misinformation and earned her a reputation as “difficult.” Now she calls out the combatants, making little show of objectivity, given that this is her side of the saga. Smart and strong, she doesn’t bother with ladylike niceties, describing one financial CEO as a “country bumpkin” and another as not “up to the job,” though she credits a luckier financier with “puckish charm and quick wit.” getAbstract recommends this illuminating insider’s view of the Wall Street-Washington nexus for its revealing narrative and unnerving conclusion: Nothing will change unless Main Street makes it happen.

Summary

Into the Fire

Sheila Bair had already spent two decades working for the US government when she became the new head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2006. A “lifelong Republican,” Bair’s thorough policy background, including administrative posts in the Senate and the Treasury Department, made her a strong candidate for this key Bush administration job.

Aside from managing the government insurance program that protects bank depositors, the FDIC plays a crucial regulatory role by monitoring the institutions it insures. The FDIC operates among a web of supervisory bodies including the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office for Thrift Supervision (OTS). The FDIC’s board includes the heads of the OCC and the OTS; its managers and supervisors collaborate with the Treasury. The agency handles “more than $4 trillion in insured deposits.” Bair found that deregulation had demoralized its employees and had cut its staff to roughly two-thirds of its 1995 size. Reduced numbers of supervisors had to deal with more banks and more complex banking, forcing them to follow “hands-off regulatory philosophies” and to use...

About the Author

Sheila Bair served as head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from 2006 to 2011. Time magazine named her one of the “100 Most Influential People” in 2009; Forbes twice hailed her as the “second most powerful woman in the world.”

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