Simon Johnson: White House Failure To Appoint Elizabeth Warren Would Be The Last Straw

Baseline Scenario:

It's one thing to block Elizabeth Warren from heading the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

It's quite another thing to deny in public, for the record, that any such blocking is going on (e.g., see this report; Michael Barr apparently said something quite similar today).

Read the whole story: Baseline Scenario

Comments

[Joey Rapps]

05:00 PM on 07/19/2010

My advice to Elizabeth Warren: RUN HARD, RUN FAST. The FED scheister demons who have been enslaving us since 1913 will tear her LIMB FROM LIMB. Ms. Warren: you can't fight them, save yourself. I cannot, as a U.S. citizen in good faith, ask you to make this sacrifice. Please...no one who is caring wants to see another Rachel Corrie incident. This is not the way we'll win; by throwing decent people into the volcano to satisfy the gods. We'll figure something else out. Please, Liz. You're not Frodo Baggins! That was just a book! GET OUT OF THERE!!!

[Endora9]

04:29 PM on 07/19/2010

I would love to see a "one-on-one" Warren vs. Geithner debate on the Daily Show. Jon Stewart was one of the few in the media who gave Ms. Warren the early exposure she hadn't been getting from any of the other Wall Street fueled media mouthpieces. We, in the middle class need her as a trusted antidote to Geithner and his despicable Wall Street cohorts.

[Christine Verdon]

03:20 PM on 07/19/2010

I hope there's someone in the White House monitoring the response to Elizabeth Warren - she is the only person I've heard who actually makes sense and would give the White House an aura of credibility - hopefully the President and his minions will actually listen to her viewpoint and advice.

[CarolinaDem]

12:46 PM on 07/19/2010

Does anybody remember the $4 per gallon gas of 2006-7? They said it was too few refineries. No new ones came online. The recession cut the heart out of Indian and Chinese auto sales. But now that we understand Goldman Sachs' ways of manipulating markets for food and housing, who can doubt that they had a hand in it? They probably bought petro futures, sold them to investors promising to buy them back at a rising price, but using only 5% of the investment to claim the futures and investing the rest T-bills to leverage tons of 'normal' trading. At no point would it matter to them that the price of the commodity at the bottom of their inverted pyramid of scheming went through the roof. It would only matter to people who have work to do.

There is quite possibly no defense against this kind of crap. THAT's why Harvard and Yale and Brown send all their brightest and best into Wall Street: it's the only game on earth.

A thousand Elizabeth Warrens couldn't change it. Hang on tight; there's more to come, maybe especially if the current crop get away with stopping her. Where's Howard Dean?

[LiberalDem]

10:48 AM on 07/19/2010

According to the Talbott piece on HuffPo the banksters already have two stooges lined up for this job, and one of them comes from the Robert Rubin wing of the corporate-owned Dems.

[DebtNavigation]

10:28 AM on 07/19/2010

If Elizabeth Warren is blocked, that leaves Americans to take matters in their own hands through massive coordinated strategic default and civil disobedience to the collectors.

In Mexico in the mid-'90s Wall Street engineered a currency coup that tripled the debt owed by small businesses and family farms and also allowed for them to be massively ratejacked on top of it. Mexicans consequently formed the "el Barzon" movement and pushed back Wall Street and deposed their ruling party of 60+ years. In this country YouTube phenom Ann Minch has already declared the debtors' revolt and begun going after them http://www.revoltstartsnow.com

If you've been pushed under, you can read every other page of my book for free: http://www.scribd.com/doc/25443175/Debt-Hope-Down-and-Dirty-Survival-Strategies-Evaluation-Version-Complete

[HLL]

10:22 AM on 07/19/2010

You can send an Email to the White House and tell President Obama you want Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau! (If you do...)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Here are 2 PETITIONS you can sign for Elizabeth Warren ~
http://act.boldprogressives.org/cms/sign/petition_warren/?source=typ-fb&referring_akid=.268617.vi1Vxr

http://www.credoaction.com/campaign/pick_warren/?rc=homepage

[pbh493]

10:08 AM on 07/19/2010

Simply put - we trust her. She seems to have little to no ego.

[HLL]

10:23 AM on 07/19/2010

Fan #40. Well put. We trust her. I can't say that about too many other people in government.

......................still trying to think of who else I trust :)

[pbh493]

10:44 AM on 07/19/2010

:) yeah, me too.

[Gaoler Mews]

09:41 AM on 07/19/2010

The last straw until Sarah Palin heads the GOP ticket in 2012 and all those disillusioned with the President then break their backs once again to re-elect him.

[kevman08]

09:30 AM on 07/19/2010

I'll be really mad if she isn't appointed.

[Truthb4u]

09:22 AM on 07/19/2010

nice2blucky: Not true at all. He has earned every ounce of contempt he receives.
________________________________________________________________

(This is to the person named at top who asked me personally to respond to his post.)

Comtempt mean despicable and scornful. I dont know any despicable and scornful thing this President has done. You can argue from the health care bill to financial reform bill, watered down or not strong enough, these bills are now law of the land or will be. He did manage to get these bills passed, which in my opinion is a start and not despicable or comtemptible.

You use such hard language to describe the President actions. You hold him 100% accountable for every failure, when I asked you if you would give him credit for things you consider right, your answer was basically HELL NO. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, I just I am not in agree with yours.

It seems we are way overboard in our condemnation of the President. There is no blame for congress, republicans or anyone one else. Only the President deserve our contempt.

[Truthb4u]

09:25 AM on 07/19/2010

correction: I am not in agreement with yours. Sorry for typo.

[outnow]

08:57 AM on 07/19/2010

Obama's choice is between the continuation of the middle class and the wellbeing of the investment bankers. He will choose the latter in every instance. He has proven this again and again.

What is needed is systemic reform. The system is now set up to depend on the personality of who would head the so-called Consumer Protection Agency so that the head person could use his/her discretion as to whether to keep the banksters honest. Think Christopher Cox at the SEC or look at the MMS.

Obama's popularity is taking a dive as job losses mount up due to his "free trade" agenda - which is contrary to the interests of labor - and his total allegiance to Rubinomics.

How many people bought a big screen TV from with money from loans against equity in their home? This is not prosperity. It was an accounting trick brought to you by innovators on Wall Street who were paid up front in large bonuses even as they sold toxic assets.

Obama just wants to get reelected and he knows where the money is and what he must do and for whom.

[jinxed]

02:02 AM on 07/19/2010

Dear Timmie, you won't have a job long if you continue on the road you are on because you will be the reason Obama fails. You should actually be under investigation for the horrible, incompetent job you did while at NYFED. You are a living, breathing poster child for the "Peter Principle" along with W.

[MyNameIsJames]

12:59 AM on 07/19/2010

Sure this is a test for the Obama Administration, but I believe the biggest test is for Progressives. If the Obama Administration decides to appoint someone other than Warren what will Progressives do.

Are Progressives willing to vote with their money -- perhaps support a progressive candidate to challenge Obama in the primaries or redirect their money to Progressive organizations to build more support outside of the Democratic Party for progressive positions.

[olivia]

12:10 AM on 07/19/2010

I wrote the White House. I hope everyone will.

If Geithner is afraid of her, all the more reason to put her in the position. It's time to end the Bush era policy of putting foxes in charge of the hen house with no oversight from anyone else.