As Joe Costello, who writes on politics and finance, said in the Huffington Post,"In case you haven't heard, women are leading the charge on financial reform. In the spirit of celebrating their contributions, I've put together a list of the top five heroes of 2009, in the hopes that their work will inspire us in the coming year...."First, I'll start with Yves Smith, who I came across end of last summer. She has 25 years in financial services, worked for, amongst others, Goldman, McKinsey, and Sumitomo, and is also a graduate of Harvard and Harvard Business School. Her must-read blog is Naked Capitalism. She has shown great knowledge and greater courage -- and from my experience, these two traits are too rare together. Her writing is exceptional, and if you want a good overview of the financial mess and what's gone on over the past year and half, I highly recommend paging through her blog's archive. The president should replace Geithner with her. Time we had our first woman Treasury Secretary."