Sheila Bair continues to be mad that she didn’t get to sit at the grown-ups’ table during the financial crisis, and she told Joe Nocera all about it in his much-talked-about “exit interview” this weekend. She-Bair is not afraid to bring the awkies regarding her relationship with Hank Paulson: “Except for a 10-second handshake, she never even spoke to Henry Paulson her first year or so in office.”
Wait, what? Sadly there are no more details about this 10-second handshake, but we imagine it got pretty creepy. Hank probably started crisp and confident, but by the five-second mark both hands were clammy and eventually Bair had to clear her throat noisily a couple of times and say “crushing my hand here Hank.”
Now, sure, the Bair didn’t like getting snubbed by Timmy and Hank just because her whole agency had to share two computers for most of her tenure. But she has no problem with elitism per se, and doesn’t think government money should be given to just any bunch of losers:
“Let’s face it,” she said. “Bear Stearns was a second-tier investment bank, with — what? — around $400 billion in assets? I’m a traditionalist. Banks and bank-holding companies are in the safety net. That’s why they have deposit insurance. Investment banks take higher risks, and they are supposed to be outside the safety net. If they make enough mistakes, they are supposed to fail. So, yes, I was amazed when they saved it. I couldn’t believe it. When they told me about it, I said: ‘Guess what: Investment banks fail.’ ”
And second-tier investment banks should fail in second-tier ways, like crashing a Segway, or throwing up from drinking peach schnapps, or dying of an allergic reaction after a little light bestiality.
There’s lots more in the fascinating interview, which depicts Bair as principled, no-nonsense, and proved right by events. As Nocera notes Bair has long been viewed as “difficult,” her reputation dragged down by Andrew Ross Sorkin’s reports that Tim Geithner and Hank Paulson viewed her “as a showboat, a media grandstander, a politician in a regulator’s position whose only concern was to protect the FDIC, not the entire system.”
But Bair’s market-discipline approach, and her view that bondholders should suffer for investing in insolvent issuers, are getting more respect these days. And with the Bair’s book dropping in 2012, a little love from Joe Nocera seems well timed to help her in her next act.
A little Kouwe-like, Matt.
Sometimes you eat the Bair, sometimes the Bair eats you.
wow, sheila bair who oversaw the downfall of the most community banks that have failed since the depression (which the fdic had complete control over) is now being the tough guy (and based on her pic, she may be a guy). is now the voice of reason? this is silly!
“Awkies” is now my favorite word.
This entire cast of assclowns has jumped the shark. If I had to choose between reading the “memoir” of Sheila Bair, Hank Paulson, Donald Rumsfeld or Paul Wolfowitz, I would choose to eat a dog turd.
Too bad real human beings’ lives are being decided by these folks. Collectively they couldn’t run a hot dog stand.
If I really really had to, no way, no.
What? This was (and most of the others) have been pretty good today, I thought. This is levels above the Kouwe-shit
The guy managed to link to a story on a woman who died while having sex with a dog…That’s Gold, Mattie, Gold!
He’s gonna do just fine…
Yes, with the lights on, in broad daylight, at the dog park
-One Happy Alsatian
What does Phil Falcone have to do with this story?
Last time I saw lips like that, they had a hook in it.
Looks like the dude in the back is engaging in some “awkward physical contact” with himself.
the beard abides
Oh yeah, well you used to work at a second tier government agency. So there!
- Current JEF trader.
Former Bear trader.
click outletlouisvuitton.webs.com/ for more
1gXYdX Looking forward to reading more. Great post.Really looking forward to read more.