Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Another reason Elizabeth Warren is the one to lead the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau

This article by William Grieder is another reason for naming Elizabeth Warren to head the newly legislated Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Grieder story basically outlines the history of the financial industry meltdown and subsequent taxpayer bailout and the overwhelming influence of insiders in the whole mess. A key statement Grieder makes is that throughout it all the people footing the bill (i.e., us) had no representative at the table. What's happened has affected citizen-consumers at a broad level. Credit is less freely available and, in the case credit cards at least, far more expensive. Most devastating has been the loss of equity in retirement savings and property values. People work and buy as part of a social contract Lizabeth Cohen terms the "Consumers Republic." Warren has studied the erosion of that contract for years. She isn't beholden to the special interests that created the disaster. Her work as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel is how all of this information is seeing the light of day. Most of all, vested interests don't want her. That seems like the best reason of all to give her the gig.

No comments:

Post a Comment