A note to Washington Central Casting: Now that the President has signed on for a 9/11 Commission to investigate the economic downturn, let's skip the usual suspects to head it and, as in the 1930s, find a fresh face for the role of shaking up Wall Street.
Back then, ethnic outsider Ferdinand Pecora was the new star. This time, Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren looks like the best choice for a gender change in taking on the old-boy network that brought the country to the brink of ruin.
As Congressional watchdog for the bank bailout, Warren has been rehearsing for the part by showing a rare directness in calling for a clean sweep at the top. "The very notion that anyone would infuse money into a financially troubled entity without demanding changes in management is preposterous," she has said.
Along with her other qualifications, Warren has a public presence that inspires confidence, last weekend leaving Bill Maher in dumbstruck admiration.
In the past, she has proposed a new agency modeled on the Consumer Product Safety Commission to protect the public in buying financial merchandise.
"It is impossible," she has written, "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.
"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?"
If she were to ask questions like that and get beyond the usual mealy-mouthed answers, Elizabeth Warren would play the 21st century version of Pecora to perfection.
Showing posts with label Elizabeth Warren. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elizabeth Warren. Show all posts
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Monday, April 06, 2009
Saying "Enough" to the Banks
As Timothy Geithner dithers, the Congressional watchdog on the bank bailout, Elizabeth Warren, is previewing a much tougher attack.
"We want to ensure that the Treasury gives the public an alternative approach," she tells the Guardian about her worries that banks won't recover while being fed subsidies. "When are they going to say, enough?"
"The very notion that anyone would infuse money into a financially troubled entity without demanding changes in management is preposterous," she adds.
Professor Warren, head of the oversight committee monitoring the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, will call for shareholders to be "wiped out." saying, "It is crucial for these things to happen. Japan tried to avoid them and just offered subsidy with little or no consequences for management or equity investors, and this is why Japan suffered a lost decade."
Geither meanwhile is on TV hemming and hawing about possible "restructuring" of banks in the future as White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers plays down his $5.2 million gig last year with a hedge fund business as "a part-time job."
The Times runs an OpEd argument that the crisis needs to be "tackled head-on, not by propping up failing banks" but seizing them, stripping toxic assets and auctioning them off.
It's looking more and more like the most crucial restructuring needed may be at the White House economic team. When will the President say "Enough"?
"We want to ensure that the Treasury gives the public an alternative approach," she tells the Guardian about her worries that banks won't recover while being fed subsidies. "When are they going to say, enough?"
"The very notion that anyone would infuse money into a financially troubled entity without demanding changes in management is preposterous," she adds.
Professor Warren, head of the oversight committee monitoring the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, will call for shareholders to be "wiped out." saying, "It is crucial for these things to happen. Japan tried to avoid them and just offered subsidy with little or no consequences for management or equity investors, and this is why Japan suffered a lost decade."
Geither meanwhile is on TV hemming and hawing about possible "restructuring" of banks in the future as White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers plays down his $5.2 million gig last year with a hedge fund business as "a part-time job."
The Times runs an OpEd argument that the crisis needs to be "tackled head-on, not by propping up failing banks" but seizing them, stripping toxic assets and auctioning them off.
It's looking more and more like the most crucial restructuring needed may be at the White House economic team. When will the President say "Enough"?
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