Elizabeth Warren: Obama Gets Serious About Bank Reform

For anyone who had doubts that President Barack Obama wasn't serious about reforming America's financial system, today's appointment of Elizabeth Warren should cause them to change their minds.

Warren is special advisor to President Obama in charge of forming a new consumer protection agency to watch over the banking system, to be called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). And considering the bank overdraft scandal at Bank of America and at Wells Fargo, the new agency and her appointment to form it could not have come at a better time.

The Harvard Law School professor and former candidate for Supreme Court Justice has developed a track record of chronicling and advocating for the middle class family. Professor Warren is described as a "Republican Nightmare," and wants to be called "the dog catcher." Her intense focus of concern has been on abusive bank lending practices. Now, she has what for her is a dream job: forming the agency that will attack banks known for them. Moreover, it's an agency Warren reportedly had the original idea for.

Democrats and Liberals Wanted Warren

According to VeteransToday.com, Elizabeth Warren was the choice of many liberals who have seen her work on issues of how banks mistreat people. Indeed, today's Wall Street Journal blog asks why "everyone" (on Wall Street) is afraid of Warren.

WSJ Blog quotes FBR Capital Markets Banking Analyst Paul Miller as saying:

They are afraid of the whole institution itself. There is very little oversight. Elizabeth Warren is one of these true believers who believes that banks really take advantage of consumers, and therefore she is going to set the tone of this organization down the road….and what banks are afraid of is that the rules will be so complicated that they will be afraid of going out there and lending without being sued and things like that.

Obama should not stop there. His next move should be to do what JFK did with the Steel Industry: send the Attorney General and the Department of Justice to subpoena the expense accounts of the top steel executives and send F.B.I. agents to "interview" them, according to LA Progressive's Joseph Palermo.

Obama taking that action with U.S. Banks with respect to lending and credit would turn the American economy around, and they know it.