As a moderate Republican woman from Kansas who happens to be an expert on our banking system, Sheila Bair is pretty much a category of one. And while this hasn’t necessarily won her an abundance of popularity contests, it very much makes her worth listening to.  

Especially now, when questions are swirling about the safety of banks—in particular, how they are regulated, and what role should be played by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which Bair chaired in those oh-so-momentous years from 2006-11.

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How drama-filled were the days of the 2008-09 financial crisis? One measure is the numerous Hollywood movies about the period, including the HBO film Too Big to Fail, based on Andrew Ross Sorkin’s award-winning book of the same title, with actress Patricia Randell playing Bair. (Number of other FDIC chairs portrayed in movies? Zero.)

Bair began warning about problems with mortgages shortly after she came to the FDIC. By 2007, problems in the banking sector became acute, and soon after, Bair was thrust into the financial abyss, working alongside—and sometimes sparring with—Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner, and Ben Bernanke.