Sheila Bair, Not Jamie Dimon, Should Succede Janet Yellen As Treasury Secretary

Rumors are flying that President Biden is considering Jamie Dimon as Janet Yellen’s successor at Treasury. Normally one might think the present – with the ship of finance foundering – an inopportune moment for talk about changing helmsmen midstream. But in fact it’s a fine moment – a reassuring moment – for such talk if we talk of a far better candidate for the present crisis: former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair.

The crisis we face at the present is the product of three decades’ concentration and financialization of banking on Wall Street. Since the 1990s, we have seen the number of banks nationwide shrink precipitously, the size of remaining banks balloon perilously, and the focus of lending move from production to speculation calamitously. This has, anything but accidentally, coincided with the destructive globalization, financialization, and deindustrialization of the national economy.