Two views on Sheila Bair

From the book editor's desk:

There's been no shortage of books about the financial crisis and its aftermath, ranging from the investigative reporters' work to memoirs of figures involved in its earlier stages to scholarly works about the surface causes, deeper causes, and mechanisms developed in response.

What sets Sheila Bair's Bull By The Horns: Fighting To Save Main Street From Wall Street And Wall Street From Itself apart is that of all the writers, Bair and her former federal agency, FDIC, had the most intimate, direct involvement of all with the daily lives of bankers. FDIC, whether as insurance provider or as primary federal supervisory agency for state-chartered non-Fed-members, touches every bank in some way.

Sheila Bair came aboard at FDIC with an image as somethng of a policy wonk, but left as a tough in-fighter who played her part in modern banking history. She raised many bankers' blood pressure with her speeches at industry events, but they listened carefully to her views, even when they--often--didn't agree with them.

Earlier this year we featured a former examiner's review of the book and now we've added a review by a veteran banker. We haven't read the book yet ourselves, but based on these two reviews, it's next on our reading list.

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