E. Warren: "It’s time for all of us to pull up our socks and get to work."

[Moosepoop]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/17/fighting-protect-consumers

The White House Blog
Fighting to Protect Consumers
Posted by Elizabeth Warren on September 17, 2010 at 06:00 AM EDT

Over the past several weeks, the President and I have had extensive conversations about the vital importance of consumer financial protection.

The President asked me, and I enthusiastically agreed, to serve as an Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He has also asked me to take on the job to get the new CFPB started—right now. The President and I are committed to the same vision on CFPB, and I am confident that I will have the tools I need to get the job done.

President Obama understands the importance of leveling the playing field again for families and creating protections that work not just for the wealthy or connected, but for every American. The new consumer bureau is based on a pretty simple idea: people ought to be able to read their credit card and mortgage contracts and know the deal. They shouldn’t learn about an unfair rule or practice only when it bites them—way too late for them to do anything about it. The new law creates a chance to put a tough cop on the beat and provide real accountability and oversight of the consumer credit market. The time for hiding tricks and traps in the fine print is over. This new bureau is based on the simple idea that if the playing field is level and families can see what’s going on, they will have better tools to make better choices.

If the CFPB can succeed at leveling the playing field, we can go a long way toward repairing a gaping hole in the budgets of millions of families. But nobody has ever thought or argued that the consumer bureau can fix everything. Lost jobs, stagnant incomes, rising costs for college, dwindling retirement savings—there’s a lot of work to be done.

When she was 16, my grandmother, Hannie Reed, drove a wagon in the Oklahoma land rush. Her mother had died, so she was up front with her little brothers and sisters bouncing around in the back. When I was growing up, she talked about life on the prairie, about marrying my grandfather and making a living building one-room schoolhouses, about getting wiped out in the Great Depression. She was hit with hard challenges throughout her life, but the moral of her stories was always the same: she would solve her problems one at a time by pulling up her socks and getting to work.

It’s time for all of us to pull up our socks and get to work.

The lady has spoken. :)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. The lady has spoken, and I like what I'm hearing.

Time to get going!

Recommended.

:patriot:

[cbayer]

2. K & R - this is really exciting and on par with the Dr. Donald Berwick appointment.

Outstanding!

[grasswire]

3. I want to know more about her grandmother Hannie Reed

Wow. Sounds like Elizabeth is driven by the ghosts of family homesteading hardship. Me too. My grandparents homesteaded on the prairies of Saskatchewan and the more I know about homesteading the more I am in favor of truthiness in government and big D Democrats.

[lunatica]

4. My socks have worn holes in them but I'm pulling them up

She'll make an outstanding adviser to President Obama.

[madmax]

5. Here's to women - all women

with brains and titanium ovaries. :toast:

Congratulations Elizabeth Warren

[tabatha]

6. I love the fact that she used an old-fashioned metaphor.

Before bullshit became the norm.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. Noticed that.

It's something my mom would have said.

[Common Sense Party]

7. Is the CFPB only regulating the credit markets?

[Moosepoop]

8. No, it will be regulating much more than that.

http://money.howstuffworks.com/bureau-of-consumer-financial-protection1.htm

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection

(page 2)

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection will operate under the auspices of the Federal Reserve and should be up and running by the end of 2011. It will ultimately set rules and regulations for any business that provide financial services to consumers, controlling a host of financial products that include:

* Deposits
* Credit extensions and loan services
* Property leases and purchases
* Real estate settlements
* Check cashing, collection and guaranty services
* Online banking
* Financial advisory services
* Credit reports and other consumer financial reports
* Debt collection

Right away, consumers should notice one thing: Their contracts will become easier to understand. The new law requires banks and other financial entities to do away with the kind of hidden fees and disclosures that they used to bury within the fine print. Congress' goal was to make consumers more aware of the impact of any purchases or financial decisions they make, which would ultimately make them more informed and spur competition.

Eventually, this transparency may lead to the elimination of financial frustrations like penalty fees and surprise charges. In theory, consumer awareness of these nickel-and-diming practices -- and the ability to look for a better deal as a result -- could drive prices down. In addition, consumers will have more information to allow them to compare products, select the ones that meet their needs and refuse the ones that don't .

Building on the idea that the market can reward those who help themselves, the bill also creates an Office of Financial Literacy and an Office of Financial Protection for Older Americans. Both are designed to help regular folks achieve a measure of financial independence through education.

[Common Sense Party]

16. I'd love to get a job with the Office of Financial Literacy.

I've been teaching folks about saving, investing and debt for years, but I'd love to be able to do so from an unbiased, impartial (non-corporate) standpoint.

[femrap]

9. Elizabeth comes from

strong stock. No wonder she is so sharp. Kick some ass, Elizabeth.

I think I'll send her a beautiful pair of socks!

Edited because my mind is totally somewhere else. Too many 's's!!!

[pnwmom]

10. I hope you mean "Kick some ass"!

:shrug:

[femrap]

11. I went back and looked at

what I'd written and I still didn't see it. Thanks so much. My mind just moves faster than my fingers type. I do that a lot.

I'm :rofl: :blush:

[pnwmom]

13. Glad to help. I misspelled something much worse yesterday.

I misspelled "Osama." !@#$%!

[femrap]

14. Wow....now that's bad!!!! nt

[Bluenorthwest]

15. Ah, that story about her grandmother explains

why I like the way Warren talks, her direct manner is familiar to me.....

[jberryhill]

17. I don't wear socks

Can't I just roll up my sleeves, untwist my underwear, or something?