Elizabeth Warren, Republican Punching Bag (Video)
Video - Mar. 16, 2011
Congressman Duffy questioned Elizabeth Warren, Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during a Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit hearing entitled: "Oversight of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)"
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Video - Mar. 16, 2011
Rep. Ed Royce questions Warren.
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An Advocate Who Scares Republicans
By Joe Nocera
The piñata sat alone at the witness table, facing the members of the House subcommittee on financial institutions and consumer credit.
And thus the real purpose of the hearing: to allow the Republicans who now run the House to box Ms. Warren about the ears. The big banks loathe Ms. Warren, who has made a career out of pointing out all the ways they gouge financial consumers — and whose primary goal is to make such gouging more difficult. So, naturally, the Republicans loathe her too. That she might someday run this bureau terrifies the banks. So, naturally, it terrifies the Republicans.
To listen to the House Republicans, you’d think the financial crisis of 2008 was like that infamous season of the long-running soap opera “Dallas,” the one that turned out to be a season-long dream. Subprime mortgages? Too-big-to-fail banks? Unregulated derivatives? No problem! With the exception of their bête noire, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Republicans act as if nothing needs to be done to prevent another crisis. Indeed, they act as if the crisis never happened.
It’s not just the House Republicans either. Already the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has reverted to form, becoming once again a captive of the banks it is supposed to regulate. (It has strenuously opposed the efforts of the A.G.’s to penalize the banks and reform the mortgage modification process, for instance.) The banks themselves act as if they have a God-given right to the profit they made precrisis, and owe the country nothing for the trouble they’ve put us all through. The Justice Department has essentially given up trying to make anyone accountable for the crisis.
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Mar 20, 2011 at 3:28 PM
Reader Comments (11)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/16/elizabeth-warren-cfpb-republicans-house_n_836682.html
Quotes galore in this link...
http://dailybail.com/home/bailouts-tarp-the-cfpa-elizabeth-warren-on-charlie-rose-vide.html
Bush's general education
Are there blacks in Brazil?
Congress has been the voice of Wall Street for the last 20 years and thats exactly who he is speaking out for now.
http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/the-bizarre-smear-campaign-on-elizabeth-warren-continues/
Take away the ability of bankers to influence politicians and rent-seek and the private sector will be roused from the slumber the false sense of protection by government has lulled them into (and failed at miserably!).
Real investors and other self-appointed watchdogs responsible to real investors with skin in the game will not let Wall Street bankers get away with the misdeeds they are guilty of.
Why does anyone with half a brain think that a bureaucrat like Elizabeth Warren is going to accomplish any more than the dozens of people before her have accomplished? What was that definition of insanity again?
You mind filling me in on just how your going to pull that one off?
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It's understandable you might say this. The spin machine has gone into overdrive over Ms. Warren. The CFPB, contrary to BS you might have read in the WSJ or heard at the hearings the other day, is tasked with enforcing the law, not making new ones. The CFPB is tasked with enforcing lending laws that the FDIC, OCC, OTS and the Fed all neglected to enforce in the lead-up to the crisis. If you're worried about rentseeking, you should support Warren because she's tasked with preventing the big banks (and little banks) from hiding behind the pretense of law and contract in defrauding and tricking people.
The "dozens of people" that came before her (Bernanke, Dugan, Geithner, et al.) simply neglected to do their job in enforcing the law -- this isn't the socialist calculation problem we're dealing with here.
Exactly my point! Why do all these bureaucrats continuously "fail" to enforce all these rules and regulations? Because it is in their interest NOT to enforce them as we have witnessed over and over as the regulators and regulatees constantly trade places.
Take away all these laws, rules, and regulations and investors and professionals in the industry with skin in the game will make sure these shenanigans dont go on! The only rules and regulations needed are the same ones the rest of us have to live by - laws against fraud, deceit, theft, etc.
This kind of stuff doesn't occur often in environments where caveat emptor is the prevailing philosophy.
Repeal and lack of enforcement of the rules and regulations enacted after the 1929 crash are one the main factors leading to the 2008 crash.
With rules and regulations repealed or ignored by regulators, the professionals in the industry with the investors cheering them on went on a gambling binge that makes Las Vegas look like penny-anti neighborhood poker game.
If you don't regulate the greedy b**tards they will damn sure do it again.