Bank Regulation Catfight!
Mmm, what a tasty way to start a Tuesday morning -- with reports of an obscenity-laden tussle between government money nerds over the very sexy topic of bank regulation! Here is what you need to know: Tim Geithner wants a single authority called the National Bank Supervisor providing oversight over our nation's many banks, and Sheila Bair opposes this consolidation. On Friday, Geithner gathered Bair and Ben Bernanke and Mary Schapiro, the SEC Chairman, to quit running their yaps to newspapers about how much they hated all his ideas.
At a tense, hour-long meeting on Friday, Geithner told Bair, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro to end recent public criticism of the administration's plan and stop airing concerns over their potential loss of authority.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the meeting, said Geithner vented frustration over the plan's slow progress and told regulators that "enough is enough."
Citing people familiar with the meeting, the newspaper also saidGeithner used obscenitiesand took an aggressive stance in his dressing down of the regulators.
...Which did not stop Bair from pissing all over him in prepared testimony to be delivered to the Senate Banking Committee today. BALLS OF STEEL.