While yesterday I reported that Obama would appoint Warren, today I can follow up that he has. Here;s a chance to get to know her a little better and see how excited Rachel Maddow was to interview her.
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WHY ELIZABETH WARREN?
Credited with coming up with the original idea for a U.S. consumer financial protection agency, Warren, 61, is not afraid of making enemies and has campaigned for years on behalf of consumers, writing books about why working families can no longer afford a middle-class lifestyle in America.
She put banks on notice on Friday, as she accepted Obama’s invitation to become a special advisor to stand up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a move by Obama that sidesteps a potentially bruising Senate confirmation.
"The time for hiding tricks and traps in the fine print is over," she cautioned in a White House blog posting.
"People ought to be able to read their credit card and mortgage contracts and know the deal. They shouldn’t learn about an unfair rule or practice only when it bites them."
ARE ADVOCATES PLEASED?
This was music to the ears of consumer advocates, who had lobbied hard for her to get the post and were delighted that their hero was safely in place.
"Wall Street is busy trying to thwart regulators from doing the job Congress laid out — keeping the big banks in check," said Lisa Donner, Executive Director of Americans for Financial Reform. "With Elizabeth Warren leading the way, and the public keeping up its vigilance, they will not succeed."
This sentiment was echoed by other consumer groups, some of whom had mounted petitions to secure her the job.
"Warren offers the promise of what financial consumers need most – a tough advocate to clean up an industry that has made unfairness and deception its core business model," said David Arkush, Director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Division.
WHAT DOES BIG BUSINESS SAY?
Making her an assistant to the president and special adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was sharply criticized by industry lobby groups.
"This maneuver is an affront to the pledge of transparency and consumer protection that’s purported to be the focus of this new agency, the Chamber of Commerce said in a statement.
"This may be a calculated move to help fire up some groups ahead of the mid-term elections, but it undermines the credibility and effectiveness of this already politicized new agency from day one," it said.
WALL STREET’S WORST NIGHTMARE?
The banking industry already had reservations about being regulated by an individual who has a long track record of seeing Wall Street as the problem.
The two key gripes about Warren are her perceived predisposition in viewing banks as the guilty parties, and an academic’s lack of real-world experience of how the industry functions, and hence a lack of appreciation of its views.
"She has no grounding in the practicalities of the industry that she would be regulating," said one former Federal Reserve official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"Many people in the industry believe, in her mind and in her heart, that she has been such an advocate for this that there is a predisposition in her view-point of being highly suspicious of the industry and that it is guilty until proven innocent," he said… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Reuters>
Did you notice how the chamber’s criticism was empty words without substance. They can’t tell the truth, because they won’t admit that their objection is that the don’t want to be stopped from robbing you blind.
I’ve never seen Rachel Maddow so excited before, even more than when DADT was ruled unconstitutional. Here she is interviewing Elizabeth Warren.
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This is a huge win for Main Street!
6 Responses to “Why Warren Makes a Difference”
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The question I asked myself last night while watching the interview was “Advisers have no control over policy, and why does she report to Wall Street Tim? What is her function other than to whisper in the ears of them who make policy. While it is a forward step, I wasn’t as excited as Maddow was because I still don’t see where she has AUTHORITY.
And you know what i think about the CoC and pony show called Wall(ed off) Street. Gut them all and let the shamans (remember no doctors for anyone we’re going back to tribal medicine as i said in the above article) read their entrails.
Mark, that’s the way it was written into the finance reform law, but this advisor does in fact have the authority to regulate consumer protection in financial services. Her functions as yemporary head of CFPB and her advisory functions are separate.
“She has no grounding in the practicalities of the industry that she would be regulating,” said one former Federal Reserve official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Yeah, well if you had any balls, you would state your name now wouldn’t ya?
I am SOOOOOO happy that Obama appointed Elizabeth; she’s been a tireless advocate for working families and I know she’s do a great job. Welcome, Elizabeth, from the working families of America!
Lisa, perhaps he’s afraid that she might direct attention at his crimes.
This is excellent news about Elizabeth Warren. Wall Street tycoons are running scared; or at least they’re pretending to anyway. No doubt they’re too powerful and too sheltered to be actually scared of anything. But it’s fun to hear the hysterical rhetoric from Wall Street and that tinfoil hat-wearing F#$%&!#$&!#! at the US Chamber of Commerce.
And the news of Summers’ departure must really have the sweating.