Sheila Bair will be sorely missed as one of the few coherent and less-servile regulators. She was appointed to her position in 2006 by George W. Bush, so no credit to Obama. She was most likely a happy mistake because Bush II certainly was not long on regulatory effectiveness with Hank Paulson at the helm.
Obama's appointments to the financial and economic oversight positions in his Administration have generally been underwhelming to abysmal for what was advertised as a reform administration. These include Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner, Gary Gensler, and Mary Schapiro.
It is important to remember that the 'JPM hedge exception' was heavily promoted to the Congress by the Treasury and the Fed.
It would be interesting to see the 'Bair Rule' applied to JPM's massive paper short position in the silver market, which chief JPM commodity trader Blythe Masters has defended as just 'a hedge.'
Related Story: Sheila Bair Says Break Up JP Morgan Chase
