RSS Feed MenuIf President Obama wants to improve things for American financial consumers and realize the promises of the financial reform bill, he should drop the rumored nomination of Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren to head the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and pick a proven professional manager in her stead. It isn’t a matter of politics: Warren’s work is on the Left but hardly out of the mainstream and, her relative unpopularity on Wall Street isn’t necessarily a strike against her. (Industries shouldn’t be regulated by their best friends.) But, Sen. Richard Shelby’s (R-AL) comments about Warren—that she has “no significant managerial experience”—should raise some pretty grave concerns.
Some background on Warren: Although some versions of the financial reform bill created a super-powerful freestanding Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the entity that emerged will come into existence as the Treasury Secretary consolidates existing powers and authorities over credit cards, mortgages and other financial products. If Warren or some other activist wants to use the CFBP to ban all payday lending, reinstate usury laws nationally, or make it impossible for poorer people to get credit cards—all goals various segments of the Left have embraced—they’ll find themselves out of luck. Even if these things were good ideas (they’re not), the Bureau probably can’t do them. Over-zealous consumer protectors like Carter administration Federal Trade Commission Head Michael Pertschuk have found their own powers severely circumscribed.
The real task ahead for the bureau will involve meshing staffs from dozens of different agencies to administer existing laws in a better more predictable fashion. This unglamorous but necessary work could yield some real dividends. A single agency might well be able to cut back the phone-book sized package of papers necessary to close on a mortgage, reduce the 20-page fine print credit card agreement to a few easy-to-read pages, and crack down on the financial scams that proliferate on the internet. This isn’t exciting or glamorous stuff. Mostly, it will require a sure managerial hand and the ability to build a task-focused organizational culture at the new bureau. And nothing in Elizabeth Warren’s resume indicates she has that set of skills.
easton // Aug 13, 2010 at 9:54 am
Let her prove it then. Look at all the former Congressmen or cronies run all of the agencies already, how many of them had the requisite experience? Lehrer is simply looking for another hook to latch onto her, I simply don’t buy this.
Watusie // Aug 13, 2010 at 9:56 am
Eli, if she did have “significant managerial experience”, wouldn’t you instead be complaining that she is a bureaucrat?
Something tells me that somewhere, somehow, it will be possible to find someone in Washington DC with government experience to be her chief-of-staff. What I’m interested in is “the vision thing”. She’s got it.
dante // Aug 13, 2010 at 10:34 am
Coming up with ideas, and guiding the agency is the job of the head of the agency. The actual work that you’re talking about is always done by middle-management. She’s perfectly, 100% qualified to lead the agency, and hopefully she can get some experienced management underneath her to do what needs to be done.
balconesfault // Aug 13, 2010 at 10:39 am
Actually, you just have to look at the work Warren has been doing as Chair of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel to realize that this complaint is a bunch of hooey.
The Panel has been a model of aggressively following what government money has been doing, and making that information available to the public. Which is, of course, why Warren is unpopular on Wall Street, since their goal was to make as much of the TARP money disappear down various ratholes never to be seen again. We should be thanking our stars that someone like Warren is willing to take on trying to make this potentially unweildable conglomerate work. Given to the average Washington bureaucrat it might just become another lumbering “make no waves” agency instead of one which tries to live up to the rhetoric of its creation. Given to a revolving door Wall Streeter, it might become something even worse, something Orwellian.
freedomrings // Aug 13, 2010 at 10:56 am
come on, admit it. You don’t like her because the idea of her in that position gives liberals wet dreams. You think she’ll be too effective!
Rewena // Aug 13, 2010 at 11:25 am
She’s ready.
She is definitely ready.
TerryF98 // Aug 13, 2010 at 11:40 am
She seems ideal for the job. A pit-bull to coin a phrase. Maybe the fact that Wall street definitely does not want her in the position is the best recommendation for her to get the job.
DonkeyEdge // Aug 13, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Why Elizabeth Warren is ready to be the consumer watchdog:
http://thedonkeyedge.com/2010/07/26/the-warren-commission/
ktward // Aug 13, 2010 at 12:27 pm
The CFPB is Warren’s brainchild.
When it looked like Dodd was prepared to sacrifice it for the sake of votes (and was readying Consumer Advocacy groups for that very end), Warren fought hard for it and it remained part of the Reform bill. Yes, a lot of her fight was in front of the public– one of a few key reasons why she is so fabulously effective.
Finding some pencil pusher is easy.
But outside of Warren, there’s no one who possesses both the comprehensive industry knowledge *and* passionate vision, driven by a personal mission to protect the little peeps.
Dodd isn’t supporting her largely as a practical matter: he doesn’t believe she’ll make it through confirmation. Pitifully, that’s a legitmate concern because — surprise! — this is shaping up to be just one more partisan cage match in an absurdly long damn line of them.
On general principle, I’m not a big fan of recess appointments. (Seems so, I dunno, Bush-ey.) Nevertheless, I remain principally open to exceptions. Given the critical import of this particular appointment coupled with the Party-of-No’s predictability, this seems like it might prove an exceptionally warranted opportunity to make an exception.
PracticalGirl // Aug 13, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Are we looking for an administrator or a leader for the CFPB? As balconesfault and ktward point out, Warren seems to qualify on both fronts.
Unsympathetic // Aug 13, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Translation for this gratuitously pro-Wall Street thread:
Warren isn’t fit to lead because.. she will actually be effective. News flash, Eli: Raping the middle class is NOT the birthright of the upper class.
busboy33 // Aug 13, 2010 at 10:56 pm
“Some background on Warren: ”
. . . and then you go on to offer absolutely no background on Warren whatsoever. Did you forget what you were writing about, or couldn’t you figure out a better way to try and snidely smear her?
That was just embarassing.
So your only complaint is that she has “no significant managerial experience”. What does that mean? She’s doing a pretty good job running the TARP oversight. She’s been pretty effective running that, as indicated by her fairly savage criticisms of the implementation of the program which demonstrates her group is organized enough to effectively gather and review data.
She’s intelligent, she’s no tool of the Administration, she’s knowledgable, she’s experienced, she’s passionate, and she seems to be pretty honest. I certainly wouldn’t want her either.
And by the way, I like how you offered a suggestion of someone who was more qualified — nobody. Obama’s might nominate Warren? She sucks! Who would be better? Irrevelant! The important thing is, Obama’s choice sucks!
Impressive Eli. And by “impressive”, I mean “try harder”.
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