[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

Wall Street, beware: Sheila Bair is on the tear.

The former chief of the FDIC took Wall Street to task in her book out tomorrow, 9/25/12.  Her book speaks for itself – and more than lives up to its name, "Bull by the Horns: Fighting to Save Main Street from Wall Street and Wall Street from Itself."

During the financial crisis, Ms. Bair was one of the key behind-the-scenes players who questioned whether the big banks needed a bailout.  Her rocky relationship with Washington and Wall Street plays out in the 423-page account, published by Free Press, a division of Simon and Schuster. Excerpts appeared yesterday on Fortune.com.

Some choice portrayals:

• Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit as inexperienced: "I thought Pandit had been a poor choice.  He was a hedge-fund manager by occupation and one with a mixed record at that."
• Ex-Bank of America boss Ken Lewis: who stepped down as head in 2009 "He was a decent traditional banker, but as a dealmaker, his skills were clearly wanting.  He was viewed somewhat as a country bumpkin by the CEOs of the big New York banks, and not completely without justification."

Those who knew Ms. Bair and Mr. Pandit's history won't be surprised.  The former personally blamed the latter for Citi's problems, and tried to get him fired.  [C-I Note: To his credit, Mr. Pandit continues to be CEO since 2007.]

For further details, go to [NY Post, 9/22/12] and [Business Insider, 6/5/12].