3/23/2011 11:31 AM ET
Why do they see this affable 'granny' as a threat? She wants a consumer-friendly financial industry and may soon have the power to bring it about.
Related topics: banking, credit cards, politics, customer service, Liz Weston
When I asked Elizabeth Warren last week how she'd like to be remembered, I expected her to cite one or more of her professional accomplishments. Perhaps:
Her groundbreaking research as a Harvard law professor with the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, which exposed the fragility of many American families' finances, or her best-selling books that sprang from that research, "The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers are Going Broke" and "All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan."
Or her role as head of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which investigated the bank bailout, criticized how rescue funds were used and suggested ending the notion of "too big to fail" by liquidating insolvent banks.
Who invented credit cards?
Or her current job putting together the fledging Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which she championed and which she believes, had it existed earlier, could have prevented the financial crisis by blunting the growth of subprime mortgage lending to unsophisticated borrowers.
Liz Weston
But no. After first asking for a rain check to consider my question, the former Sunday school teacher blurted out that what she'd really like to be known for is being "a good granny" to her three young grandchildren, whom she was flying to see in California the next day.
Warren, 61, has a way of confounding expectations. Bankers so loathed her for her criticism of their industry that naming Warren as the director of the consumer protection bureau was considered politically untenable last year. President Barack Obama instead hired her as a special assistant to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, which didn't require congressional confirmation.
But recently, in what The Wall Street Journal and others have called a "charm offensive," Warren has been reassuring groups of bankers that what she wants is more transparency, not necessarily more regulation, which the Oklahoma native likens to fences on a prairie that lawyers can easily dodge around.
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She has also been soliciting the opinions of credit card companies' CEOs. In our conversation, she cited Nigel Morris, a co-founder of Capital One, as someone who "thoughtfully talks about how the thing works, how decisions are made."
"It's been people like Nigel, who are on the inside," Warren said, "who've helped me understand the role the regulation should play to keep a market free, to make a market competitive."
Warren's corner office at the Treasury Building looks out on two of D.C.'s best-known icons: She can see the Capitol from one window and the Washington Monument from another. These are visual reminders of just how far she's come, from studying the lives of financially desperate families to wrestling with some of the most financially powerful special interests.
Competition is not an excuse for deceptionIt remains to be seen whether Warren can blunt the antipathy that bankers feel toward her in time to be named the head of the bureau by its July 21 launch date. Meanwhile, House Republicans still are looking for ways to gut the agency's funding. They're convinced that an agency devoted to protecting consumers from unsafe and deceptive financial products will squash innovation and kill jobs.
Warren, obviously, doesn't see it that way. Rather than tying lenders up in regulatory vines that prevent them from competing, she wants to see clearer disclosure and less fine print, which she famously likens to shrubbery in which the "muggers" of hidden fees and other anti-consumer "gotchas" can hide.
"A competitive market is one where the competition is not about how many things you can hide in the fine print," she said. "A competitive market is one where the consumer sees the differences, and so people are competing to attract the consumer. That's the whole difference."
The role of the bureau, Warren says, will be "to ask the questions, gather the data and to monitor the markets to make sure they work for consumers."
The credit card market, for example, has always been competitive, she said -- but not competitive in a way that necessarily benefited consumers. Instead, card companies competed for how much revenue they could produce.
"And the smartest way to do that had over time become to pretend to sell at a low price at the front end and then sock people hard on the back end with fees and interest rate repricing," Warren said. "The difficulty, of course, with doing that is that the consumer can't ask two basic questions: 'Can I really afford this?' and 'Could I get it somewhere else cheaper?'"
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Government is the reason why ins. premiums and meds costs continue to go up!!! 0 0ReportSpaml. rawlins (safenow) 7 minutes agoThank God she is working on the protection of we little people. the market mor or less broke us, our interest rates got raised and now takes half of our double payment in interest> retired and fixed income . Insuranse premiums tripled and perscriptions followed, making it impossible to keep using all my meds for bipolar and depression, blood pressure all the rest> I truly hope she hurries and gets congress off their butts and puts the ceo on a strict budget. until then we are at the mercy lack there of ,of the big money thefts from the greedy banks and the ceos love it. like to see them live on 29000 or less a year..when will it change to when citizens were the important people. relegalize the common person so they can eat and have tp 0 1ReportSpamRECESSION NOOOO9 minutes agoGreat, another left wing government idiot coming in to save the day. That's what caused the problem in the first place..... 0 0ReportSpamRuTuesday14 minutes agoUntil you actually SEE and EXPERIENCE change, just consider all of this 'hope and change' the same old fluff we've been getting...nothing but air and words. 1 0ReportSpamTE15 minutes agoBe careful what you wish for. It was the government that started the whole financial meltdown by forcing banks to loan money to people who could not repay the loan. Someone needs to check out who she associates with. Don't blame the banks all the time. People should buy what they can afford not buy what they want just because they want it. No one is going to give anyone free money. I don't trust her or who she works for, it is not republicans or democrats they are all the same. Remember the democrats had the senate and congress before and during the meltdown. Politicians, regardless of party, only want the power and the vote, and will say anything to get it. Empower yourself with knowledge don't count on the government. 1 0ReportSpamd p (oknow0602) 39 minutes agoGood Job! for Her! & keep going.
I think most/all for the 'bank' card offers have 'too' much FINE print.
And to much ... 'legalize': as The bank, is then reffered to as 'we'.
...'we' !!, we 'know' it's you/the bank.
Just give Your(the bank's offer) plain & simple, and have all do the same!
Meaning, if you want me to sign up.
Give me your real rates .... & not 'oh', by the way, in 6 months' it will go from ...~4.99%, then in 6 months it's at ~16.99%
I'm in my 50's, ... and I would have liked getting so many 'credit card' offers, when I was in my ~20's, ... NOT that I would have taken them.
As a ~50yr. old, ... Why are credit companies, like Visa & MC, sending me offers?
As I already have several of them. So why do they still want me to have another?
I, understand AM Express wanting me to get theirs.
4 0ReportSpamSomeone (virgil.owen) 41 minutes agoWhat harm could come of having the financial institutions be honest? From what I have seen she is just asking the financial institutions to disclose the true cost of their products. The recession we are going through right now is the direct result of the actions of the banks. When the banks start loaning money for houses and the like watch how quick this recession ends. 2 0ReportSpamAndrew Brown50 minutes agoPromise Language is the solution she and you are looking for:At its most basic, Promise Language is a simple standardized protocol describing transactions between people. However the structure of that protocol will transform the banking system into a system of trust and accountability. It can be started at a small local credit union or at a large central bank, but either way it will be adopted by all institutions due to its simplicity and significant cost savings. The protocol is similar to how internet browsers standardized on a single version of HTML. It is more than a protocol however. The entities in the diagram above already exist today, but the protocol changes how we view them. Subtly changing the banking system from a system of theft and corruption to a system of trust. Eventually forcing all central banks to back their products (money) with something of tangible value. Promise Language is the result of reverse-engineering the concept of money. Money becomes obsolete. Currency becomes optional. All transactions become wealth that is transferred. The distinction is critical. Wealth has an owner. Money and Currency have hierarchical authorities behind them who extract a price and maintain their position through force. 3 0ReportSpamcowboyNTX54 minutes agoShe's a Cancer Earth Ox. There's a big difference between her an Orphan Winfrey and Dick Cheney who are both Aquarius Horses. Some people help other people while some people pretend to help others who's true motives are to help themselves."The most reliable and diligent Oxen belong to this collection of Oxen. The Earth element balances many of their negative characteristics. These Oxen are show good judgement, a good characteristic for successful financial dealings. Other people tend to look up to Earth Oxen because of their reliability, sincerity and their modest ambitions. They are willing to tackle the workload when it become overbearing for others and are loyal and compassionate with family and friends." Incredulous232323 sounds like a Rooster 2 5ReportSpamJackie Rawlings (Prep) 1 hour agoElizabeth Warren is a Republican the Banks can't buy. Law Makers take pride in the millions they get to protect the Banks and work for more bank bailouts for bonuses. SEC director Cox did a great job of looking the other way so the fraud could take place. Even Bernie Madoff had to wait a long time before being arrest, there was so much stealing going on in the Government. Hank Paulson was clueless but he brought the Goldman Sachs young employees with him to the Treasury to pull off the Crime of the Century. Hank is a poor lie and shacks when he lies. Hank went to China to talk Economics and they sent him home because he was stupid and had no idea what he was talking about. His job was to make sure Banks got as much as possible before Obama took office. Each Government department under the Bush Administration was fulled with liars and crooks stealing as much as possible and the Banks ran free in the US Treasury. Mrs. Warren shut the door and is protecting the people. Look for the GOP to fight her as hard as they can. Don't worry about Senator Rand Paul he misses out because he side he has to flush the toilet 10 times and his prayers to Aqua Buddha and those bong hits take up much of his time. 12 1ReportSpamIncredulous2323231 hour ago
Shortsighted, foolish nonsense. Everything she will do will increase the cost of credit in America. People like to act stupid and pretend, "Oh, i didn't know I would owe so much money." Even though they get the disclosure that a grade school kid can read. People like to blame bankis for their own carelessness and stupidity. Buying a house? Hire a lawyer you cheapskate. Protect yourself if you can't read at a 3rd grade level. Meanwhile, the rest of us who are responsible will pay more for credit because of you lunkheads. That's if we can get a mortgage.
The new Bureau will not care about solvency of financial institutions - and the punishments can be severe for violations. Putting financial institutions out of business does not help consumers either - it further consolidates the market so only the huge, impersonal banks are left standing. Sound good? This woman is dangerous and that's why Obama has not nominated her for office. She could not even pass through the Senate with a huge Dem majority last year. Yet she is so wonderful? Hmmmm. Right.
Good luck and remember you regret getting what you want sometimes.
4 26ReportSpamJust here1013 hours agoDon't worry the Republicans are looking out for you!!! The Banks!! 13 2ReportSpamThe total cynic4 hours agoWow, maybe now we will have someone standing up for the common American and not for the wealthy and connected. Of course many pundits will whine that this is socialism as though our constitution was written for the corporations and not for 'we the people'. 23 1ReportSpamADD-TEL6 hours agoI can only hope she exposes the banks and our politicians for the thieves they are and desolves all of them! 29 2ReportSpamTheAUricle8 hours agoIt is great having a consumer 'pit-bull' to try and give these people some ethics, which obviously is not taught in the Ivy League brain washing centers.
However, from THEIR perspective, putting her in a box with Geithner reminds me, "Keep your friends close, and your enemies CLOSER"!
18 2ReportSpamP.O. Carl8 hours agoAnything or anyone that the banks fear, is good for the consumer. The moneylenders have ruled too long. 40 2ReportSpamAdd a commentReportPlease help us to maintain a healthy and vibrant community by reporting any illegal or inappropriate behavior. If you believe a message violates theCode of Conductplease use this form to notify the moderators. They will investigate your report and take appropriate action. 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