Sheila Bair
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Europe must act fast to avoid the risk of a bank run
Financial leaders are sounding the alarm for unified stability, but the usual suspects are dragging their heels once again.
By Sheila Bair, contributor
FORTUNE -- Europe is starting to look more and more like the U.S. as it headed for the cliff in the fall of 2008. The continent's banking system is fragile and overleveraged. Making a scary situation even scarier is the lack of a central, credible authority to protect MORE
Jul 9, 2012 5:00 AM ET -
Breaking up Chase: Good for shareholders and taxpayers
Jamie Dimon needs to take a cue from J.P. Morgan's trading debacle and divide the banking giant into manageable pieces.
By Sheila Bair, contributor
FORTUNE – When I was a child, my sister and I loved watching the goings-on at a chicken farm near my grandmother's house in rural Kansas. Chickens are interesting social animals, resembling, somewhat, the way we in Washington interact with one another. They were always on the MORE
May 25, 2012 5:00 AM ETPosted in: big banks, break up the banks, J.P. Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, Sheila Bair, too big to fail -
Why it's time for higher interest rates
Progressives, led by Paul Krugman, believe that we can fix our economic woes with more consumer debt and higher inflation. The reality is that near zero interest rates encourage speculation, discourage savings, weaken pension funds, and put millions of baby boomers at risk.
By Sheila Bair
FORTUNE -- In the late 1800's, coal mine barons found no shortage of ways to maximize profits at the expense of their workers. Miners were MORE
May 11, 2012 10:07 AM ETPosted in: Macro, Sheila Bair -
Watch out! Is the Fed pushing us into another bubble?
The economy is getting back on track, so maybe it's time for policy makers to loosen their grip on interest rates.
By Sheila Bair, contributor
FORTUNE -- In a recent series of college lectures, Ben Bernanke sounded a positive note, extolling the Fed's low-interest-rate policy and predicting sustainable economic growth. I want to believe him, but his words echo the confidence exuded by the Fed in late 2006 when it missed MORE
Apr 23, 2012 5:00 AM ETPosted in: Ben Bernanke, economic recovery, Economy, Federal Reserve, interest rates, Macro, Sheila Bair -
Want stimulus? Scrap special tax breaks
Our tax system helped get us into our economic mess. Now it can help get us out.
By Sheila Bair, contributor
FORTUNE -- As we undertake the annual mind-numbing rite of filling out our tax returns, let us pause to reflect on the role our tax code played in the financial crisis.
What brought us the crisis? Overly leveraged financial institutions made high-yield mortgages to overly leveraged consumers. Financial institutions then concocted trillions of MORE
Mar 5, 2012 5:00 AM ETPosted in: Capital gains, Economic stimulus, Macro, mortgage mess, Sheila Bair, tax code, tax reform, taxes -
Why it's time to break up the 'too big to fail' banks
Customers would benefit, the U.S. government would benefit, and - believe it or not - the big banks themselves would do better.
By Sheila Bair, contributor
FORTUNE -- America is downsizing. Whether it's the food we eat, the cars we drive, or the houses we live in, Americans are concluding that smaller is better. Even U.S. corporations are starting to see the benefit of more Lilliputian institutions; the impending -- and widely hailed MORE
Jan 18, 2012 10:56 AM ETPosted in: Bank of America, Banking, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Sheila Bair, too big to fail, wells fargo -
We need a new Volcker rule for banks
It's time for our financial institutions to get back to basics: making money off good customer service - not wild speculation.
By Sheila Bair, contributor
FORTUNE -- Financial reformers are pointing to the collapse of the $41 billion MF Global brokerage house as evidence of why we need Dodd-Frank's "Volcker Rule" to prohibit FDIC-insured banks and their affiliates from making proprietary bets on the markets. Fortunately, MF Global was not a bank or MORE
Dec 9, 2011 5:00 AM ETPosted in: Banking, Dodd-Frank, FDIC, Glass-Steagall, Jon Corzine, MF Global, regulation, Sheila Bair, Volcker Rule -
The Eurozone crisis will not go away until banks face reality
European regulators have turned risk assessment into an insider's game where the bankers are calling the shots.
By Sheila Bair, contributor
FORTUNE -- The European sovereign debt crisis is slowly driving the global economy back into the ditch. Why is this crisis so unresolvable? The answer comes back once again to excess risk taking and leverage in the banking sector. In late October, Europe's leaders finally persuaded the banks to take a 50% MORE
Nov 2, 2011 5:00 AM ETPosted in: Banking, banks, Basel III, debt crisis, European debt crisis, Eurozone, greek crisis, Macro, Sheila Bair -
Are big banks doomed to fail?
Why big banks' plan to break up in a crisis won't work.
FORTUNE -- Have you ever watched something unfold, knowing that it hasn't got a prayer of succeeding?
Then you understand how I feel about the provision in the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation that would supposedly avoid future federal bailouts by requiring giant financial institutions to draw up so-called living wills.
These "wills," which banks are currently discussing informally with regulators, are MORE
Allan Sloan, senior editor-at-large - Jun 14, 2011 5:00 AM ET -
Sheila Bair steps into the Dimon-Bernanke rumble
The outgoing chair of the FDIC publicly disputed Jamie Dimon's concerns over banking regulations.
FORTUNE -- JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon is worried about how new financial regulations could stall America's economic recovery, but regulators aren't buying it.
No doubt many parts of the new regulations associated with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill are complex and will need to be carefully implemented, FDIC chair Sheila Bair said this morning during a MORE
Nin-Hai Tseng, Writer - Jun 9, 2011 11:54 AM ET
Sheila Bair is a Fortune contributor, and a former chair of the FDIC, and former member of the Basel Committee. She is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Bull by the Horns, Fighting to Save Main Street from Wall Street and Wall Street from Itself.
