In her last statement as chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Sheila Bair emphasized the importance of keeping focus on real estate, crediting not only the financial crisis, but also the slow economic recovery to “the fact that so many residential and commercial properties are currently underwater”[1]. She added that “signs of recovery remain elusive” and that she hoped that the FDIC’s “highest regulatory priority” would be “returning the banking industry to a primary focus on safe and sound lending.”
Vice chairman Marty Gruenberg is likely to succeed Bair as FDIC chief, but he has not yet been confirmed in the Senate[2]. Some analysts fear that federal economic policies are going to suffer as Bair and other financial officials leave the administration. “Everywhere I look the people who have been guiding the president’s economic policy are all either departed or shortly will depart,” says former vice chairman of Washington Mutual William Longbrake, adding that “it makes matters worse” when the administration is lacking in economic guidance and cannot focus on the major issues of the day.
Do you think that the Obama administration will benefit from new economic leadership, or will the president replace old faces with new ones that support the same policies?
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[1] http://www.costar.com/News/Article/Outgoing-FDIC-Chair-Sheila-Bair-Says-Goodbye-Real-Estate-Is-To-Blame/130280
[2] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43641382/ns/politics-more_politics/
