Elizabeth Warren’s role as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency is shaping up to be the focus of a political battle. But it really shouldn’t be.
If there was ever someone in D.C. who was actually looking out for the interests of the American people and the U.S. economy, and who actually had the power to do something about it, Warren is that someone. An editorial from Philly.com explains how Warren has already helped us out in her role on the TARP Oversight Committee.
“Warren was the first administration official to recognize the potential for disaster posed by a law that would have made fraudulent foreclosures even easier to pull off than they are now. She met with state and federal officials to discuss the bill, which had already passed both houses of Congress, and convinced President Obama not to sign it in a “pocket veto” that the House failed to override.
“If President Obama had signed the Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act, every state would have been required to accept all notarized documents from other states. So those with lax standards could have become centers for bogus foreclosure documents that other states would have been forced to accept.”
Additionally, the other standard but very general argument against Warren is that she is “anti-business” or in favor of “big government.” But those are misleading arguments. What she’s in favor of is transparency and making sure that banks and other lenders can’t scam individuals willy-nilly. In other words, she’s about creating faith in our system which is “pro-business” since a market is always more efficient if people trust it.
To not make a serious effort to guard against large-scale fraud on consumers is to shoot ourselves in the foot. Sure, people need to take responsibility for their mistakes. But when these problems are occurring on a large scale, they create additional costs that are ultimately born by taxpayers. In other words, better to keep an eye on things on the front end before they get out of control.
The need for a competent and proactive consumer finance watchdog is even more important during tough economic times like these. People are under greater financial pressure and more people have been vulnerable to lending, mortgage, debt relief and other scams. This isn’t good for anyone (except of course the scammers).
Hopefully things will progress in a favorable manner for Elizabeth Warren on the political front. We’re very fortunate to have someone like her to being working on behalf of all of us. And it would be a shame to squander the opportunity to actually help and heal this country at a time when we so need it.
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