Favorable Signs For Warren, And The Middle Class

Alexander Hart in The New Republic (online) on August 1 described credit card companies, "commercial banks and retailers that make loans," and "hucksters" as those who would have need to fear the nomination of Elizabeth Warren to head the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. He concluded "they’d obviously have a tough adversary in Warren—which is why, by the way, she makes such an appealing choice for the job."

An appealing choice, and an increasingly likely one. Editor and publisher Katrina vandenHeuvel of The Nation yesterday tweeted "WH (& others) indicate Elizabeth Warren 2 be nominated next week to head Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Kudos 2 all who worked 4 her." A Daily Kos blogger, though conceding that no news organization has reported any decision having been made, "the Nation is a magazine with very close ties to the Obama administration." She tweeted yesterday also that Senator Majority Whip Dick Durbin now supports Elizabeth Warren, as did The Washington Post's Greg Sargent in his blog. The latter quoted Durbin as stating about last week on the Senate floor:

It is critical that the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection be put in place with a director who is aggressive, intelligent, and understands the challenge they will face; a director who is fair, one who believes in the power of the marketplace but understands that markets work better if everybody participating in those markets benefits; a director who will listen to what bankers are saying but can see through them when they try to slant lending markets too far in their favor; a director who thinks, first and foremost, about how American families can thrive in today's complicated economy.

Fortunately, there is a person who can fill that job effectively. Her name is Elizabeth Warren.

As Sargent euphemistically put it, the Illinois Senator "is a close ally of the President." Less euphemistically- with (increasing) pressure from the left upon President Obama to nominate Warren, the Illinois Senator is not going to advocate the appointment of an individual unless he has reason to believe that his former colleague is going to take that step. (There is an even less euphemistic way of putting that, but this is a family blog.)

If it comes about, financial reform recently approved by Congress and signed by the President may be yielding an important dividend.

Share|