Sheila Bair never expected to find herself in the middle of the subprime mortgage mess. Bair has spent most of her career in Washington, where she's built a solid reputation as a financial regulator, most recently as assistant secretary for financial institutions at the Treasury Department. And she had been nervous about subprime mortgages years before it was on the radar screen of other regulators.
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That describes Bair to a T. She took office in June 2006.

Fast-forward to last week, when, with great fanfare, the White House announced a plan that encourages lenders to give across-the-board breaks to a certain category of subprime borrowers who are in danger [...]