Arianna appeared on ABC's "This Week" Sunday as part of a roundtable with George Will, Kate Zernike, and Jonathan Karl.
During the discussion, Arianna and Will sparred over bank lending and Wall Street reform. "Somebody I was talking to over the week -- people in business, venture capital -- were asking 'Why doesn't the government do more to force banks to lend, to do more to make it easier for people to actually go out there and show some kind of consumer activity,'" host Christiane Amanpour said.
"Well maybe if the government did less, period, people would me more inclined to lend money," Will replied. "The banks aren't hoarding the money because they're in a pout. They're not hoarding the money because they're mad at somebody. They're hoarding money because they can't find lenders who think they can borrow it and make money."
"No, that's not true," Arianna responded. "The banks are getting almost zero-percent interest rate loans from the Fed and they are spending it to make a lot of profit in derivatives trading and all the things that got us into this trouble in the first place. And this administration and this Congress still has not passed an end to Too Big To Fail, still has not reinstated Glass-Steagall. So even though people may not be able to give you all these details, they know that the system has not been fixed, that financial reform is full of loopholes, and that the system is not fair, basically, for them as they're seeing their lives falling apart."
WATCH:
In the Green Room, following the roundtable, the panel was asked whether Obama's push on the economy this past week accomplished anything.
"Well, he changed the rhetoric," Arianna replied. "But he needs to do a few things that go beyond the rhetoric. I think nominating Elizabeth Warren to run the Consumer Protection Bureau would be something that would show the middle class, who he talked a lot about this week, that he really means it, that he's willing to put a champion for the middle class in a place of power. He can't do anything much in Congress, so he might as well do some things that are in his control."
WATCH: (the question on the economy comes at the 1:40 mark)