Fortune magazine has hired two new columnists: Sheila Bair, most recently a chairperson with the FDIC, and John Cassidy, a contributor to the New Yorker. Bair will cover the relationship between Wall Street and politics; her first column is online today. Cassidy will report on general business, and his debut column will appear in the next issue of Fortune.

Andy Serwer, Managing Editor of Fortune, said that Bair and Cassidy would continue the tradition of having talented columnists at the magazine.

“Columnists are the heart and soul of any journalistic enterprise,” said Serwer. ”The unfettered voices of a newspaper or magazine, they opine, snarl, and otherwise shout from the treetops. The best columnists have a mastery of subject, an ironclad take, and complete command of the written word.”