altara

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Appoint Elizabeth Warren!

to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She is in effect the godmother of this unit designed to protect consumers from predatory tactics of purveyors of financial instruments such as credit cards, mortgages and other loans. Professor Warren (of Harvard Law School) has spent the last couple of years, while leading the TARP oversight committee, urging the creation of an agency focused on consumer financial issues, some of which contributed to the financial crisis.

During the typical flawed legislative process, the financial reform law was weakened by placing this unit within the Fed and by inserting exemptions such as auto loans.

Professor Warren has been engaging and impressive in her role in TARP oversight and in her many television appearances explaining and promoting financial reform. I join leading economists and many others (although not Treasury Secretary Geithner) in urging the appointment of Elizabeth Warren.