Academic

It's politics, not law, but we've noted that Sheila Bair and the FDIC have had a successful run - at least if you look at optics - during the financial crisis.  The agency appears to have reveled in its centrality; it insures bank deposits, and now appears to think that it can offer widespread mortgage relief to bank borrowers.  I'm still unsure how an insurer would do that; Treasury and the White House haven't bought in yet.  Anyway, Bair is now being mooted, possibly by her flacks, as a candidate for Obama's Treasury Secretaryship, and entirely coincidentally, she has decided to critique today's homeowner mortgage relief program announced by Fannie and Freddie as "fall[ing] short of what is needed."   

Meanwhile, Treasury has updated its Capital Purchase Program FAQs - a useful three days before the deadline for applications to the program.