Elizabeth Warren: Consumer Bureau Must Fight For Survival

WASHINGTON - Elizabeth Warren pressed consumer advocates to fight on behalf of the newly created consumer protection bureaus she's heading up, warning that it is not yet established like popular cousins such as the Federal Aviation Administration, Food and Drug Administration or Consumer Product Safety Commission.

"When was the last time you heard a friend or colleague--Republican, Democrat, libertarian, or vegetarian--complain that the Federal Aviation Administration should do less to prevent plane crashes?" she said.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, she said, has to fight its way to that solid position. "American families have the agency they need, but they may have to fight for its survival. Goliath may have lost, but unlike in the Bible, this is not a one-round fight," she said.

Warren was speaking before the Consumer Federation of America, one of the more aggressive consumer advocate groups. "Without your continued leadership, the new agency will always be vulnerable -- to those who would deny it authority, to those who would deny it funds, and to those who would deny it an effective place in government," she said.

Warren told the group that she'd been meeting with a number or people who have long done battle with the CFA - "lots of CEOs" of very large financial institutions, Warren said, pushing her philosophy that strict regulation alone isn't enough to curb bad bank behavior and that broad principles must be laid out, too.

She recalled that as credit card reform was on its way to becoming law, one card issuer had already figured a way around a key reform. The law blocked banks from jacking up rates for little reason and with no warning, so the card issuer instead gave every customer a very high rate, then gave customers "discounts." When the card company felt like it, it could revoke the discount and technically be in compliance.

"This agency has a moment, right now at the beginning, to envision fundamental change," she said. "It is this simple: No customer should be asked to take out a loan without knowing the costs or the risks of the deal. And every customer should be able to compare different financial products straight up. Regulations should be about making sure that customers have the information they need to make the decisions that are right for them."

If that happens, she said, the new agency will win the people's favor. If it doesn't, people will know who to hold accountable.

Comments

[AZreb]

09:51 AM on 12/05/2010

This could end up being a fight with Geithner, too - and as the one Obama seems to listen to, it may be a losing battle.

[muck-raker]

05:01 PM on 12/04/2010

.............................................GRAYSON...WARREN 2012.............................

[JASONH0099]

02:29 AM on 12/04/2010

We really do not need another lap dog arm of the government for the bankers. She a professor who has not had job out of academia and will fail... Another waste of money..

[xilduq]

11:00 PM on 12/03/2010

"the new agency will win the people's favor. If it doesn't, people will know who to hold accountable."

obama? for not calling out the banksters? for sleeping with the banksters? for rewarding the banksters instead of jailing them for their ponzi scams?

[AZreb]

09:54 AM on 12/05/2010

Is this the reason for the frantic race to shut down Wikileaks before the reports on the financial institutions comes out? What will it show of the cooperation of past and present governments with the very institutions responsible for the economic crisis?

[Drmhp]

03:31 AM on 12/03/2010

This has got to be the most important issue coming out of this whole mess we are in. How many of us really read the small print of deception when we need credit?

[xilduq]

11:07 PM on 12/03/2010

me, but i guess that's because i tend not to trust money lenders, especially the "professional" ones.

[JASONH0099]

02:31 AM on 12/04/2010

good for you.... better yet, maybe people should not have a credit card??? if you do pay it off every month or don't have it if you can't control yourself..

[breakingpoint]

02:26 AM on 12/03/2010

shame Obama made Warren window dressing instead of giving her any power

[luvsox]

08:55 AM on 12/03/2010

Ms. Warren would not take any position that was not as substantial as her ability, which is huge. President Obama made the right choice, as did Ms. Warren, in order to help the American people. You need to grind your 3rd party ax somewhere else.

[xilduq]

11:10 PM on 12/03/2010

uh, huh. that's why she's an assistant to turbo timmy who never "worked for" wall street.

[JASONH0099]

02:34 AM on 12/04/2010

What ever you Iuvsox, she will do what her master tells her to do and it will not be for the good of you or I..... Look at he FDA, yes they have some successes, but today they are controlled by their corporate masters too..

[McKeaton]

12:51 AM on 12/03/2010

Can you, Mrs. Warren, co-opt Brooksley Born, as part of your team?

[Cowboylove]

12:26 AM on 12/03/2010

Elizabeth Warren is the voice of sanity in a town gone insane. I truly fear for her life in Washington.

[phread]

11:59 PM on 12/02/2010

"We can trace each of the major failures of our economic system to the misperception of money as wealth: the boom-and-bust cycles; the decimation of the middle class; families forced to choose between paying the rent, putting food on the table, and caring for their children; the decline of community life; and the wanton destruction of nature.

Once the belief that money is wealth is implanted firmly in the mind, it is easy to accept the idea that money is a store-house of value rather than simply a storehouse of expectations, and that "making money" is the equivalent of "creating wealth." because Wall Street makes money in breathtaking quantities, we have allowed it to assume control of the whole economy-and therein lies the source of our problem."

-David C. Korten

Agenda for a New Economy from Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth

[phread]

11:52 PM on 12/02/2010

"The term free market is a code word for an unregulated market that allows the rich to consume and monopolize resources for personal gain free from accountability for the broader social and environmental consequences. A free market rewards financial rogues and speculators who profit from governmental, social, and environmental subsidies, speculation, the abuse of monopoly power, and financial fraud, creating an open and often irresistible invitation to externalize costs and increase inequality.

Markets work best within the framework for a caring community. The stronger the relations of mutual trust and caring, the more the market becomes self-policing. The need for formal governmental oversight and intervention is minimal. An economy of powerful corporations governed by a culture of greed and a belief that it is their legal duty to maximize returns to shareholders is quite a different matter and is difficult for even the strongest governments to control."

David C. Korten

Agenda for a New Economy

[phread]

11:42 PM on 12/02/2010

"The maxim that society exists only for the well-being and freedom of the individual­s composing it does not seem to be in conformity with nature's plans.....­if classical liberalism spells individual­ism, fascism spells government­."

-Benito Mussolini

[phread]

11:38 PM on 12/02/2010

"Government does not boast of its liaison with monopoly. American policy is clothed, in the modern manner, in verbal apparel designed to make the unwary see the opposite of reality. Government spokesmen are loud in their devotion to free enterprise and capitalist competition. Whenever the economy is sickly, we are told that controls would be bad because they would interfere with the workings of the free market-which tends to distract us from observing that government is helping the free market out of business without controls. The illusion is fostered also by two forms of governmental pretense; the anti-trust laws and the regulatory agencies.

-David Hapgood

[phread]

11:37 PM on 12/02/2010

america needs this woman...

"Capitalism is what happens in a market without appropriate rules. Economic power becomes increasingly concentrated and turns from the production of real wealth to the production of phantom wealth. a lack of market rules is the cause. The implementation of market rules is the corrective."

-David C. Korten

Agenda For a New Economy

[phread]

11:35 PM on 12/02/2010

Elizabeth Warren is correct about the need to regulate the banksters, but getting business people to stop being greedy ...

"Adam Smith envisioned a world of local-market economies populated by small entrepreneurs, artisans, and family farmers with strong community roots, engaged in producing and exchanging goods and services to meet the needs of themselves and their neighbors. This was a vision of the Main Street economy of Smith's time

Contrary to popular misconception, Adam Smith was not the father of capitalism. he would have taken offense at the title, because the values of capitalism as we know it were not his values. he had a substantial antipathy toward corporate monopolies and those who use their wealth and power in ways that harm others. he believed that people have a natural and appropriate concern for the well-being of others and a duty not to do others harm. he also believed that government has a responsibility to restrain those who fail in that duty."

-David C. Korten

Agenda For a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth

[phread]

11:33 PM on 12/02/2010

"This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments."

-Adam Smith