Difficult times for a company mean difficult times for its board of directors.

And these certainly are difficult times for Washington Mutual, the nation’s largest savings and loan.

Because of losses related to subprime mortgage lending, the Seattle-based firm has closed operations, cut jobs, slashed its dividend, and watched the price of its stock plummet to its lowest level in more than 11 years, closing Friday at $13.07.

Things are getting a little tight in Iowa, so it may not be the right time for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to roll out her presidential cabinet.

But should she ultimately get the nomination and then win the presidency, odds are that she might ask the New York City power couple of Joel I. Klein and Nicole K. Seligman to join her team.

And she could also keep things all in the family and sign on Stephanie Seligman, Nicole’s sister, to work at the White House or just about anywhere else.

The recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Michael Mukasey to be U.S. attorney general might have passed for a meeting of the Yale Law School alumni association.

Mukasey, class of 1967, was introduced to the committee by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., also Yale Law class of ‘67.