The Bad and the Ugly

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At a time of crisis you would expect the governement to identify the resources with the greatest and most relevant experience and let them run the show. But they have failed to do that until now, causing the justified frustration of the people who are willing and able to help but are left watching from the sidelines.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair could not contain her anger any longer. She called the govenrment to stop wasting time with stress tests and other nonsense and give her agency the authority to close even the biggest lenders!

The “too-big-to-fail concept” should be “tossed into the dustbin,” and the FDIC should have the power to close “systemically important” financial firms, Bair said in a New York speech yesterday. “Given our many years of experience resolving banks and closing them, we’re well-suited to run a new resolution program,” she said.

I believe Ms. Bair and GM's CEO F. Henderson (who claimed the position on the premise that he had the necessary force, will and leverage to lead the company into bankruptcy) form the most trigger-happy couple since Clint Eastwood teamed up with Eli Wallach in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. If we could only find a good guy, we would be ready to produce a remake of the famous spaghetti western of epic proportions...
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