Here's Elizabeth Warren, introducing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and inviting feedback and suggestions for the new agency.
And here's a very cool video describing the origins of the financial crisis and what the consumer bureau will do to protect American families and improve financial services markets. It also does a pretty good, albeit quick, job of explaining how in the hell we got into this mess. (It's cool because it's narrated by Ron Howard, and starts out sounding a lot like Arrested Development.)
Looking at this site and reading the CFPB's mission--"to work on behalf of American families"--it's hard to believe any elected official can continue to oppose what Warren and her team are trying to do. You might say it's downright un-American to oppose giving citizens the opportunity to make smart financial decisions that will make their lives better. But with a Republican party that's a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries, Fox News, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (and too many Democrats who also give their primary allegiance to Wall Street), I guess the idea of working on behalf of American families is quaint.
But that opposition also poses a looming problem for the CFPB--it has to have a permanent director.
[I]f the White House can't get a nominee through the Senate by July, the bureau will lack the authority to supervise nonbank lenders, according to a Jan. 10 report by the inspectors general of the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve obtained by The Huffington Post. In six months, the agency officially assumes the power formally held by bank regulators....
The dilemma poses a challenge to the Obama administration, which sold the agency to Congress and the industry in part based on the promise that it will help level the playing field between banks and nonbanks when it comes to government oversight. Banks have long been regulated by federal agencies and subject to regular audits. Nonbanks, like home mortgage and payday lenders, have been subject to sporadic oversight, at best. Such companies have been hit with billions in fines and legal settlements in response to accusations they engaged in abusive and predatory lending.
Mike Konczal makes a convincing case for keeping Warren on the job, even suggesting that she's got some Republicans warming up to her and that, because the CFPB isn't on the teabaggers' radar, the GOP won't be determined to prevent her nomination. I'm not as sanguine about the GOP's willingness to let any nomination go through without a fight, particularly one that Wall Street opposes. But from a practical standpoint, there's no one who has shown more passion or commitment to standing up for regular Americans, or who has proven to be as effective.