Tag: Bair

Sheila Bair’s Turn

Keith Epstein and David Heath of The Huffington Post have an in-depth article about how Sheila Bair got two mortgages on two different properties from Bank of America while she was discussing with them whether the bank could repay its TARP money to the government.

Let me start off by saying that I strongly, strongly doubt that Bair sought out a better deal on her mortgage because she is head of the FDIC or discussed her mortgage with any of the Bank of America bigwigs that she met with. That would be stupid, and it doesn’t fit with anything I know about her. (Granted, I know very little about her.)

That said, WHAT WAS SHE THINKING? Continue reading “Sheila Bair’s Turn” →

Designer Talk: Bank Recapitalization (and Bair’s Aggregator)

Sheila Bair is delivering a sensible general message: we need dramatic action to clean up banks’ balance sheets and, presumably, to recapitalize them.  This initiative apparently has support from influential senators, such as Kent Conrad and Charles Schumer.  Many Republicans also seem inclined to come on board. 

I like an aggregator-type approach; this is quite consistent with the RTC-inspired structure that we have been advocating (see the WSJ.com article linked through that post for details; such ideas are consistent with and an update of our proposals from September, November, and December).  But some of the details currently being floated seem less than ideal.  Given that the design work on this program is still ongoing and the new Administration will, without doubt, seek broad support on Capitol Hill, I would suggest that the following points be considered or even stressed in the upcoming deliberations. Continue reading “Designer Talk: Bank Recapitalization (and Bair’s Aggregator)” →