This just in, Elizabeth Warren is a candidate!
She has done so much to shine the light on the need for real financial reform and has been such a great advocate for the other 98% of us!
Will she be selected? Would she accept?
Boston.com has this:
Axelrod: Elizabeth Warren a candidate to head new consumer protection bureau
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON – White House senior adviser David Axelrod said this afternoon that Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren was "obviously a candidate" to lead a new consumer protection bureau.
The head of the new bureau is one of the most far-reaching new positions created by the financial legislation Congress gave final approval to yesterday. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation next week and begin implementing various provisions of the 2,300-page bill.
"Elizabeth Warren is a great, great champion for consumers," Axelrod said this afternoon in a conference call. "She’s obviously a candidate to lead this effort. There are other candidates as well, but Elizabeth is certainly a candidate." snip
You might not like the diaries based on thinly sourced accusations. Other names are in the pool as well.
However, if you are up with the idea of Warren heading the agency, though it might not be as strong as the one she designed, how about letting the White House know where you stand, here?
Here is an example why to support her appointment:
UPDATE: Dean Baker has an excellent analysis re Fin Reform, and on Elizabeth Warren, here: Elizabeth Warren for Consumer Protection Board user-pic By Dean Baker - July 16, 2010, 10:11AM
snip
The Federal Reserve Board already had the power and the responsibility to do the job that the new consumer board has been assigned. The problem was that Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, and their colleagues on the Fed board (with some notable exceptions) never took this responsibility seriously. As a result, consumer protection was a joke.
Shifting the responsibility to a new board does not by itself guarantee that consumer protection in financial matters will now be treated seriously. Just ask the folks at the Mineral and Management Service about their oversight of deep-sea drilling.
Ensuring that the new board carries through its responsibilities in the way that is intended will require a leader with integrity, intelligence and independence. Elizabeth Warren clearly fits that description. Selecting anyone else will be an insult not only to her, but to all the individuals and organizations who worked so hard to bring the Consumer Financial Protection Board into existence.
UPDATE 2 Just in, from Reuters: W.House eyes Elizabeth Warren for new consumer watchdog
"There are other candidates as well. But Elizabeth is certainly a candidate to lead it," adviser David Axelrod told reporters on a conference call, calling Warren a "great champion of middle-class consumers."
"She's going to be a strong voice" whether she leads it or not, Axelrod said.
The Obama administration must soon make a handful of key appointments of regulators to implement the landmark financial regulation reform bill approved by Congress on Thursday.
The future shape of bank oversight and the financial industry's profit outlook will, in part, be determined by how the regulators flesh out the details of the massive bill.
UPDATE 3 Paul Krugman : For Elizabeth Warren Says it would help Administration's image, which would be great for energizing progressives just about now!
There’s also a political aspect. The Obama administration suffers from the perception that it’s been too much in the pocket of Wall Street — partly because there’s at least a grain of truth to the accusation. Appointing a prominent pro-consumer crusader would have to help repair the image, while appointing somebody unknown to the public, especially when expectations are running high, would hurt.