Sheila Bair, Brooksley Born: JFK Award Recipients For Predicting Crisis

BOSTON — Two U.S. federal regulators who sounded early warnings on the financial crisis and a Liberian peace activist who helped end that nation's civil war were honored for their efforts Monday at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairwoman Sheila Bair, former chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Brooksley Born, and peace activist Leymah Gbowee (LAY'-mah BOH'-wee) were presented with Profile in Courage Awards, annual honors named for a 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book written by John F. Kennedy.

"(It's) a special honor to present the award to three women who have inspired all those who seek to bring about change in their political systems," said Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President Kennedy and head of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation that administers the awards.

Bair was one of the first to speak out about the subprime lending crisis, and Born warned a decade ago that unregulated financial contracts, including credit default swaps, could pose dangers to the economy. Gbowee organized a group of Christian and Muslim women to challenge Liberia's warlords.

In accepting her award, Bair said she was proud to join the list of those who have received past Profile in Courage awards. "I'm particularly pleased to be joining two other female awardees who stood up when some of their male counterparts failed to act, or worse, actively fought them," she said.

Gbowee received her award on behalf of the Liberian women who were featured in the "Pray the Devil Back to Hell" documentary about Liberia's civil war.

"For us women of Liberia, this award is a call that we will keep walking until peace, justice and the rights of woman (are) not a dream," Gbowee said, "but a thing of the present."

Comments

[lglglg]

Please, please,ple­ase...I know it's a nuisance to write down a lengthy URL and then go to Yahoo or another home page to read an article that someone has recommended. BUT...your jaw will drop if you read an op-ed that financial historian Niall Ferguson wrote for the then-not-M­urdoch-own­ed Wall Street Journal four-and-a-half years ago just before the political conventions of 2004. His thesis? That it would be GOOD for the Republicans if John Kerry would win the election then two months or so in the future! That's because G.W. was well on his way towards making a bloody mess of things, and it would be better to have the Democrats in office to clean it up. Here is the URL:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005540

[zenmonkman]

ELIZABETH WARREN ROCKS! Everyone ... you have to see this woman in action. Go to the feed, pop some popcorn, kick up your feet and you feel like a new person after she's done with you. This is a woman of PROFOUND LEADERSHIP SKILLS.

[SonofPatriot]

I doubt it. The problem could be prevented but they failed also The FDIC lack of courage to stand against these big companies.

[FrictionSoul]

It wasn't the FDIC that caved. It was Bush/Paulson/Obama who chose to ignore existing laws that would have let the FDIC close these banks down. After all, why would that troika turn down hundreds of millions of free money?

[plaidsportcoat]

Hey HuffPost if you can't tell the difference between "woman" and "women" just spell it wimmin. It's your main spelling problem overall.

[Soundofthunder]

Nice, but being rewarded for "I told you so" amounts to nothing. Beside, given enough prophets of doom, one or two of them are bound to be right from time to time. And you can thank Cassandra for people paying their predictions no heed.

SOT

[DC]

You are focusing on a single recipient. Besides, Borne paid for her warnings with loss of her job and public humiliation.

"Gbowee received her award on behalf of the Liberian women who were featured in the "Pray the Devil Back to Hell" documentary about Liberia's civil war."

[sarahwaters]

Obama should put these two women on Geithner's Team asap.

[olmossy]

Just replace Geithner, with either or both, They obviously know a lot more than him.

[johnie2xs]

Replace Geithner with, ELIZABETH WARREN !!

[sarahwaters]

caroline kennedy does not answer direct questions.
good choice she dropped out of the gov. of ny position.
as long as i have seen her in interviews over the years, she does not answer questions.
politicians should be upfront and answer questions when asked, otherwise, it looks like she is hiding something. i could never see her running for office; she just doesn't have what it takes., she is fine with what she is doing now.

[littleblackcat]

If you had been hounded all your life as she has been hounded, you would probably prefer not to answer direct questions. She'll do all right in anything she puts her mind to.

[BlueBoomer]

Somehow my comment regarding having felt that Sheila Bair should have been Treasure Secy. had me logged on using part of my e-mail address id...(?)

But under any id name, I still feel that way, AND that Elizabeth Warren should also be a more major player in Treasury.

[Melinbar]

Sheila Bair is the person I have been saying all along should have been named Treasury Sec'y...

[doneflyin]

Even Jim Cramer said that Bair should have been T. Sec.

[angelaboston]

My issue is that it turns out that many people, men AND women, were writing books and warning about the collapse. So where was the press in reporting these prognostications?? NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, ETC ETC all guilty for not reporting. HUFFINGTON POST, DRUDGE, CNN, MSNBC - guilty guilty guilty.

[Independentamanda852]

Nouriel Roubini called the Crisis.He is the only true economist on this Crisis.A real estate friend of mine called it in 1998 when the CRA Act was reformed,but no one knows him.He also almost got the year right,he said 2005 it would start(the recession)that is

[Miralo]

Oh, and congrats to Caroline K. for making a strong political statement with this award. She would have been a better senator than Gillibrand, and I'm glad she's still standing up and speaking out.

[heal57]

Congratulations to Sheila Bair, Leemah Gbowee and Brooksley Born. We need more women in government; especially relationships with other countries [good to have HRC], and in the Fed and Treasury Dept. We ned female representation in the Supreme Court, more female Senators and Representatives in Congress.

[Miralo]

Why are these women not leading, or at least in, the Treasury Department?

I don't mean to knock Obama, at least not hard. I *still* can't believe that the country that elected George W. Bush (twice!) elected him. But his Treasury appointments have not spelled change.

[The Albany Kid]

You basically took the words right out of my mouth! I've been for months for someone to tell me why Bair isn't the Treasury Sec'y (and also why Dean isn't the HHS Sec'y.).

[winchestereast]

Sheila Bair had this to say in 2002, when she was assistant sec. of financial institutins under bush - regarding deregulation/repeal of Glass Steagall law by Gramm Leach Bliley Act : GLBA stimulates greater competition and innovation in the financial services industry..­... promotes consumer protection and safety and soundness"­..........­. so DEREGULATION WAS A GOOD IDEA PER SHEILA BAIR - and as government and financial industry insider, she appears to have promoted it as a GOOD THING - well, we all know what happened ....... I want to hear her say "I was wrong - a few people became billionaires in the financial industry, a lot of people were injured" ..........­...

[Independentamanda852]

And Bush was such a p***y for not demanding the Fannie May Reform that the Democrats fought against.Th­e Socialist part of congress,along with Acorn,Obama,and other terror groups,called them Racists for preventing minorities from getting sub prime loans

[Independentamanda852]

Absolute Proof that government intervention of any kind(regul­ation,dere­gulation,p­rice control,rent control,et­c.etc) is terrible for the Economy.

[olmossy]

So we would do away with all financial laws, fraud, forgery, All regulations for Wall Street?,
Only rule is Buyer beware. Get rid of all federal Auditers we won't need them anymore?
You can for my part, since I will never have any investments past CDs ever in the future.
Just don't come crying to the taxpayers for a bailout every time the Royalty loses their
A$$e$.

[motoGpifupleez]

Those muslim societies are so backward, trampling down women and not allowing them a voice in...
oh, .....never­mind.

[zeotrope]

Well said.