Elizabeth Warren on Elizabeth Warren
This is a useful post from my colleague Ariana Eunjung Cha rounding up some of Warren's speeches and writings. As a rule, things said by Elizabeth Warren tend to be more interesting than things said about Elizabeth Warren. But I'd add two items to Ariana's round-up.
First, Warren's initial article in the journal 'Democracy' that laid out the vision for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In terms of eventual impact, it's probably the most important policy article published in the past 10 years. And second, this video from the Roosevelt Make Markets Be Markets conference, where Warren offers an insanely compelling explanation of how financial companies use complexity to harm consumers:
Elizabeth Warren on Consumer Protection (MMBM) from Roosevelt Institute on Vimeo.
By
Ezra Klein
| September 17, 2010; 2:41 PM ET
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I've seen the Roosevelt Inst. videos. Mike Konczal, I believe, recommended them when you were vacation or in China. Anyway, she's right; she's great; and it's no wonder Repubs and Wall St hate her. Simplying and clarifying (transparency) make it harder for average, non-financial people to be deceived or manipulated.
Posted by: valkayec | September 17, 2010 2:55 PM | Report abuse
Bumper sticker:
"Elizabeth Warren, Insanely Compelling"
I think she's great. If you crave more Warren go to the frontline documentaries on credit cards.
Posted by: Mazzi455 | September 17, 2010 3:02 PM | Report abuse
I think every post about Warren deserves a link to the Warren rap on the You Tubes. I can't get that song out of me head!
Posted by: MosBen | September 17, 2010 3:07 PM | Report abuse
Just for the record: President Carter proposed a dedicated Consumer Protection Agency at the cabinet level when he ran for office in 1976. This was at the tail end of the consumer protection movement, which achieved its heyday in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In other words, the idea of a dedicated consumer protection age is very old--so old that just about everyone in Washington, DC has forgotten about it. It's true that the Carter era vision didn't envision a slimmed down consumer protection agency solely to focus on financial consumer protection. But that slimmed down vision, while politically very appealing for a variety of reasons, may be a second best alternative. Warren should get lots of credit for promoting and tailoring the consumer protection agency idea so effectively. But DC media folks, such as Ezra Klein, who have little knowledge of the history of the consumer movement (and, more generally, intellectual history), should stick to assertions they are qualified to make.
--Jim Snider, President
iSolon.org
P.S. I cited some of this 1970s consumer protection agency literature in my 1992 book, Future Shop: How New Technologies Will Change the Way We Shop and What We Buy (St. Martin's).
Posted by: JHSnider | September 20, 2010 4:08 PM | Report abuse
Just for the record: President Carter proposed a dedicated Consumer Protection Agency at the cabinet level when he ran for office in 1976. This was at the tail end of the consumer protection movement, which achieved its heyday in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In other words, the idea of a dedicated consumer protection age is very old--so old that just about everyone in Washington, DC has forgotten about it. It's true that the Carter era vision didn't envision a slimmed down consumer protection agency solely to focus on financial consumer protection. But that slimmed down vision, while politically very appealing for a variety of reasons, may be a second best alternative. Warren should get lots of credit for promoting and tailoring the consumer protection agency idea so effectively. But DC media folks, such as Ezra Klein, who have little knowledge of the history of the consumer movement (and, more generally, intellectual history), should stick to assertions they are qualified to make.
--Jim Snider, President
iSolon.org
P.S. I cited some of this 1970s consumer protection agency literature in my 1992 book, Future Shop: How New Technologies Will Change the Way We Shop and What We Buy (St. Martin's).
Posted by: JHSnider | September 20, 2010 4:12 PM | Report abuse
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