Over reading The Boston Globe today I noticed that they had made their selection for Bostonian of the Year. And it is a dynamite choice.
The Watchdog: Elizabeth Warren
It seemed as if the banks and other firms got a $700 billion bonanza and the American taxpayer got the shaft. But along came this straight-shooting Harvard professor to oversee the bailout, someone who pledged to look out for the middle class and brought a sense of sanity to the economic crisis. For this we give her our top honors this year.
I know most of you here are familiar with Elizabeth Warren. She's a no-nonsense advocate for the average American family, and the overseer of the TARP board. She's been all over the media working on our behalf. You will probably have seen her on Rachel Maddow's show, Charlie Rose, and Jon Stewart, of course--and most of the other news outlets as well. If you don't know her, you should.
She has written several books, but one that I remembered hearing about is called The Two-Income Trap. She describes it in the Globe in this manner:
"It really was about what happened to the middle class over a generation," she explains. "From the 1970s to the early 2000s, there was a hollowing out of the middle class."
I had heard about her and remembered hearing about that book, but it wasn't until I watched a seminar she gave that I understood exactly what she had examined, and what her conclusions were. I provide that seminar here. It's about an hour long--but well worth your time if you are trying to understand how we got to the point we are today with American families.
Don't watch it all now, but do watch it a some point. I have been forever changed by the issues she addresses, and it forms my framework for understanding the state of play today.
Congratulations to my new favorite neighbor, Bostonian of the Year.