Saturday, September 18, 2010

Warren writes her own job description?

Back in 2007, Elizabeth Warren wrote an article titled Unsafe at Any Rate in Democracy. Warren's article began

It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance an existing home with a mortgage that has the same one-in-five chance of putting the family out on the street–and the mortgage won’t even carry a disclosure of that fact to the homeowner. Similarly, it’s impossible to change the price on a toaster once it has been purchased. But long after the papers have been signed, it is possible to triple the price of the credit used to finance the purchase of that appliance, even if the customer meets all the credit terms, in full and on time. Why are consumers safe when they purchase tangible consumer products with cash, but when they sign up for routine financial products like mortgages and credit cards they are left at the mercy of their creditors?

And later text proposed a new agency:

Clearly, it is time for a new model of financial regulation, one focused primarily on consumer safety rather than corporate profitability. Financial products should be subject to the same routine safety screening that now governs the sale of every toaster, washing machine, and child’s car seat sold on the American market. (...) So why not create a Financial Product Safety Commission (FPSC)?

Fast forward to 2010. Guess what?

Warren has a New Jersey connection: In 1976 she received her J.D. from Rutgers Law—Newark, where she served as an Editor to the Rutgers Law Review She appeared in Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story.

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