Draft Elizabeth Warren

(Via CJR)

“The time for pitchforks and torches is over.”
Scott Talbott, chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable, discussing the current appetite for financial regulation.

All due respect, Mr. Talbott - but you're totally full of sh!t.

Prof. Elizabeth Warren has been uncovering all manner of shameful behavior by public and private financial officials. While I've loved her message, I've thought that it was tragic that the only reason she would speak the truth is because her right to speak was her only power.

Bloomberg has a great profile of Prof. Warren and her effect to date - but here's the bit that leaps off the page for me:

The House of Representatives will vote in December on [Prof. Warren's] idea. She suggested a Financial Product Safety Commission in a 2007 article in the magazine Democracy. President Barack Obama proposed it to Congress in June as the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Warren won’t discuss whether she may be a candidate to lead the authority, which would have the power to regulate $13.7 trillion of debt products. A Warren nomination would tell banks that Obama is determined to force reduced checking-account fees and limit lender claims in mortgage advertising, among other measures the industry opposes, said Thomas Cooley, dean of New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Now, I can appreciate that there are many hurdles before you have Prof. Warren heading a consumer protection agency with regulatory powers - but this sort of thing was only voiced by crazies only a few months ago. Now you have Bloomberg covering it as a tangible "what-if."

Wild.