Video: Elizabeth Warren -- Aired Tuesday evening Oct. 5, 2010 -- Runs 7 minutes
I'm cautiously optimistic about Warren's chances with the CFPB, but it's difficult not to think of Ron Paul's recent prediction that despite the best of intentions, the new agency will eventually be captured by the industry it purports to regulate, just like all other Federal agencies.
From the PBS blog:
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Transcript
JIM LEHRER: Now: setting up a new federal agency to protect consumers. Jeffrey Brown has our newsmaker interview.
JEFFREY BROWN: Perhaps the most contentious among government responses to the financial crisis of the last few years was the creation of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. And perhaps the most polarizing figure in that debate is the woman whose idea it was and who was recently appointed to get it going, Elizabeth Warren.
A professor at the Harvard Law School, Ms. Warren served as head of a congressional panel that kept an eye on government bailout funds. And she joins me now. Welcome to you.
ELIZABETH WARREN, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Thank you.
JEFFREY BROWN: So, after years of writing and talking about this, here you are. What's the first priority? When would consumers know that you -- that this agency now exists?
ELIZABETH WARREN: Oh, they know now.
JEFFREY BROWN: They know?
ELIZABETH WARREN: They know in part because this agency doesn't exist because there was some interest group behind it, because there was a lot of ton lobbying money behind it.
They know because the only reason this agency exists is because millions of American families said, hey, yes, that really sounds like a sensible deal. That's a part of financial regulatory reform that I think is important and could make a difference in my life. They are the best allies of this agency. They are the owners of it.
JEFFREY BROWN: So, what's the priorities? What do you do first? I mean...
ELIZABETH WARREN: Well...
JEFFREY BROWN: And is your authority clear about what you do?
ELIZABETH WARREN: So, I think the priority is to keep in mind what the end goal is. And the end goal here is on financial products, these credit products, so that American families can evaluate how much they cost, can see the risks in them, and can easily compare one product to another. And that means what these products have to be is short and easy to read and very clear in their terms, not buckets and buckets of fine print -- in between, you know, clause 16 and clause 17 lurks something else that will come out and bite you.
Further reading:
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