According to the NY Times, his first choice was Zoe Baird but,
of course, Janet Reno got the job. There are three other women
mentioned in an article who were also in the running.
The expected choice was Brooksley Born. At the time there was a
hidden, unregulated financial tool called "Over the Counter
Derivatives" that the investment houses were using as a form of
margin on the subprime market. This was being used in much the same
way as stock speculators were, prior to the Great Depression. Ms.
Born took on Allan Greenspan, chairman of the Fed, and his team of
analysts who worked to disgrace her and squash her efforts to
regulate these dangerous financial products. Oddly enough,
Greenspan's team was bipartisan, with Greenspan being from the far
right and his minion, Tim Geithner being from the extreme left. In
1999 Ms. Born resigned the minor post that Bill Clinton gave her as
a consolation prize (after congressional hearings where her
statements fell on deaf ears). In the 2000's these derivatives did
eventually destroy the real estate market, and in 2008 Allan
Greenspan came out of retirement to appear before Congress where he
apologized and admitted that Ms. Born was right and he was
completely wrong. As a sidenote, these derivatives remain
unregulated, even in the wake of the Wall Street bailout, which
would have been an opportune time to impose these regulations.
