Sheila Bair Takes on Tim Geithner, Gets Tough on Wall Street in New Book

BUSINESS ECONOMY WALL STREET -- October 19, 2012 at 5:21 PM EDT

Sheila Bair Takes on Tim Geithner, Gets Tough on Wall Street in New Book

Throughout the height of the financial crisis in 2008 and afterward, Sheila Bair was known for being an outspoken regulator willing to confront her peers head-on. That included Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who Bair thought was not nearly tough enough to demand conditions on the big banks or financial institutions who were getting government help.

Her new book "Bull by the Horns" is an insider account of that turbulent time. In it, the former head of the FDIC calls out Geithner repeatedly (at one point referring to him as "bailouter-in-chief") and has more than a few harsh words for some of Wall Street's key executives at the time, including the departed head of Citigroup, Vikram Pandit.

Here's more of Judy Woodruff's conversation with Bair about Geithner, the Dodd-Frank law and what President Obama or a President Romney should do if elected.

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