Obama To Keep Bair At FDIC

The Obama administration intends to keep Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair in her post, Democrat officials said Wednesday.

Ms. Bair, a Republican who is one of the most influential figures in the government's response to the financial crisis, was nominated to run the FDIC by President George W. Bush in 2006. She has won praise from congressional Democrats for her aggressive push to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. But she has emerged as a controversial figure during the banking crisis, occasionally clashing with the White House, Treasury Department, and Federal Reserve over the government's response.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Middleclassvotingbloc]

Good News!! Bair appeared to be only person that cared about the homeowners' foreclosure crisis and sort to do something about it. Great.

[sloreader]

She has solid ideas about resolving the mortgage crisis, whether you agree with her or not. She has initiative and seems inclined to do the right thing. Obama should listen to her, give her orders (along with the resources to needed to implement them) and then just stand back and watch things get done. Good luck Sheila!

[banja]

I thought the new treasury sec was trying to get her fired for playing alone in the sandbox, hmmmm, must have smoothed things over.

[onlinesavant]

I thinke the most salient thing about this is that most of the people posting agree with this selection. Me being a liberal, it I think that what is most important to government and public service is advocacy for the social and economic betterment of the citizenry. Sheila Blair has shown, at least in her approach to the foreclosure crises ( And THIS is what is at the center of the economic meltdown.) that she understands what really is at the heart of the matter, and how to fix it. Even if she was installed by Bush, and probably is a Republican, Obama is making a good choice by retaining her.

[Grunty1]

Most people on the thread agree because

a) she's a good choice
b) she tried to stand up to the Disaster
c) no tr0lls have posted on the thread.

[dandypuddin]

Good.

[mediamarv]

Way to go!!

More of the same please!!

[tel8034]

Once again a person BRAVE AND FEARLESS enough to publically criticize the Bush policies is getting rewarded.

Those enablers of Bush (now unemployed) must be kicking themselves ...................... All they had to do was to speak out against the Bush wrongdoings (domestic and international) and call a spade a spade, and they would have been able to keep their jobs.

After supporting Dubya and losing all credibility and job marketability, Bush gets to go home to his father's wealth and to count his war profit billions, and the enablers get nothing ? ..................... What's the adage? ......................... If you lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas?

[schatsie]

Getting rewarded by a DEMOCRAT...I want him to keep her around to keep Geithner in line, I think she could replace him.... I want these people to deliver to Obama and if they do more power to him...I just hope he knows when to cut his losses with the shills...

[vjoseph]

Geithner is the right guy for the job, he is not part of the problem

[outnow]

The credit market dried up so the residential real estate market tanked. Sheila Bair at the FDIC tried to assist the homeowners to "re-inflate" the market. She also tried to finish cleaning up the Savings and Loan mess by collecting FDIC and Thrift funds from the scam artists who were still solvent. She was stopped by the Bush administration and several congressmen such as Richard Pombo (formerly R-Cal.) and John Doolittle (R-Cal.) at their own "Resources Committee" formed in 2001 just after 9-11.

The Bush administration has stopped her (Bair) at every turn. Maybe it isn't a "bailout" but a "restructuring" of banking to place the financial interests in control. Workers will be "wage-slaves" in debt to the new multi-national Company Store. So long as the thieves contribute to a political party (especially the GOP) they have carte blanche to rip off taxpayers with impunity.

Flooding the financial system with liquidity through TARP has failed. The system must be propped up from below (Bair's plan) as well as from the top.

The bankruptcy courts need the power to "cram down" both interest and principal while homeowners are assisted by "loan mitigation" programs short of bankruptcy. Only by approaching the problem from both sides can the real estate market be stabilized.

[MetryJen]

Excellent. I was rooting for her for Treasury Secretary, but what can ya do? Keeping her on at FDIC is a good move.

[PSTEN]

Glad to see she stays.

[mcantwell]

Me too.

[AlaninElkGrove]

me too...

[MPeter]

She sounds like an honest, hardworking American; qualified and reliable. Keep her because she is advancing the cause of this country. Nothing less than that!

[Grannysue]

Face it anyone who realized Bush was a baffoon should stay!

[ObjectiveRealist]

Only "occasionally"? That doesn't look so good.

quote:
But she has emerged as a controversial figure during the banking crisis, occasionally clashing with the White House, Treasury Department, and Federal Reserve over the government's response.
/quote

[ObjectiveRealist]

quote:
She has criticized the Bush administration's management of the $700 billion financial rescue package because she has said it doesn't do enough to keep people in their homes.
/quote

Not loudly enough, although I don't know whether I should hold that against her or the corporate press. Obviously, I tend to blame the latter.

[Egalitare]

Good move.

[PhilipTaylor]

Great! We need to do something quick to clean up the Housing Mess and she is the only one TALKING about it. NOW LETS TO IT!

Low Interest
Reduced Principal
Raise upper limit on Loan Amount
Reasonable Credit Ratings to help
Low Fees

[schatsie]

I would like low fees and low interest, and I know what low fees are not, over 12% is a drag....and should be the USURY cap... BUT the banks are going to delay this as long as they can...So the flip side is to allow the interest income deduction to be an interest credit up to 5 grand... Think about it... These people 60% are earning less than 60 grand and do not have the writeoffs, so give them a 40% credit for the interest...and they will pay the bills...same with property taxes and exemptions and deductions make them all credits, so the poor get the same writeoff for their children that the rich get...Donald Trump and Bill Gates do not need any greater tax reductions for their children than the working stiff at Walmart.