The New Warren Commission
Witness the collision of yet another certifiably brilliant mind with the thick, dull wall of bureaucracy.
As TARP Watch Dog running the Congressional Oversight Panel, Harvard University Law professor Elizabeth Warren has been a perfect pick. She chooses her battles and is ferocious as a non-partisan taxpayers’ advocate.
Now, it looks as if she’s destined for a new role. The New York Times reports.
Elizabeth Warren pitches a Consumer Commission as part of financial rules overhaul.
Most notably, she laid out the argument for a new agency in the journal Democracy in summer 2007. Presumably taking a cue from Ralph Nader, the essay was titled, “Unsafe at Any Rate.”
Some excerpts:
Consumers can enter the market to buy physical products confident that they won’t be tricked into buying exploding toasters and other unreasonably dangerous products.
They can concentrate their shopping efforts in other directions, helping to drive a competitive market that keeps costs low and encourages innovation in convenience, durability, and style. Consumers entering the market to buy financial products should enjoy the same protection. Just as the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) protects buyers of goods and supports a competitive market, we need the same for consumers of financial products — a new regulatory regime, and even a new regulatory body, to protect consumers who use credit cards, home mortgages, car loans, and a host of other products. The time has come to put scaremongering to rest and to recognize that regulation can often support and advance efficient and more dynamic markets.
The story continues.
So, we must assume that Warren believes her commission would work as a safeguard for consumers against the reckless and chicanerous come-ons of financial services companies.
What it won’t safeguard against is consumers’ reckless and chicanerous behavior when it comes to financial market bubbles–real estate or otherwise.
The Corvair of 2002-2006 was not the NINJA no-downpayment option-ARM. It was, more often than not, the person who took the loan to get rich quick.
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