Elizabeth Warren Announces Her Bid for Senate

This is hilarious..!

Elizabeth Warren talks about why she's running for the United States Senate.

Starring: Molly Erdman
Directed by: Brian Shortall
Written/Produced by: Eddie Geller
Edited by: Richard Klopfenstein

Rep. Maloney Presses for Recess Appointment of Elizabeth Warren - Wall Street Journal

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Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.) hasn’t been shy about wanting White House adviser Elizabeth Warren to head the new consumer watchdog agency.

And now Ms. Maloney is urging her colleagues to speak up on the issue, too.

Ms. Maloney sent a “dear colleague” letter Wednesday to her fellow lawmakers, urging them to sign on to a letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to appoint Ms. Warren, a Harvard Law professor, to the director post during one of Congress’s upcoming recesses.

“Since you appointed Professor Warren to ‘stand up’ the bureau, she has laid the foundation as a strong advocate for consumers—something that seems to strike fear among those who are opposed to reform,” says the letter that Ms. Maloney wants her fellow lawmakers to sign. “We can think of no better person to be the first director of this incredibly important consumer financial protection regulator.”

Recess appointments are controversial because the president sidesteps the Senate’s authority to vet and approve nominees to key federal posts.

But nearly all of the Senate’s Republicans have vowed to block any nominee for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s director position, making a recess appointment much more likely. The Republicans want changes in the agency’s governance structure and funding stream before they sign off on any nominee.

But the Obama administration has been cool to the proposed changes, which would scale back the agency’s independence. Meanwhile, the agency needs a director in place by its fast-approaching July 21 launch in order to gain its full powers to fight fraudulent financial practices.

“Since Republican senators have said that no one is acceptable unless the law is weakened, we would urge you to nominate Professor Warren as the CFPB’s first director anyway,” reads Ms. Maloney’s letter.

In "Dangerous World", Unions Fight "Assault" on Middle Class Families, Elizabeth Warren Says

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The standoff between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and public-sector employees comes to a head today as the Governor’s ultimatum runs out for the 14 state senate democrats who fled to Illinois to avoid a budget vote .

If the Senators do not return home and vote on Walker's budget -- which includes ending public unions' right to bargain collectively on pension and health-care benefits -- the state will face dire consequences.

Most Americans agree that time for austerity has arrived in the U.S. at all levels of government: state, local and federal. But, the majority of Americans do not agree that weakening labor unions is the right way to achieve this goal.

Elizabeth Warren, special adviser to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and fervent supporter of America’s middle class, agrees.

When Tech Ticker’s Aaron Task sat down with Warren in Washington last week, he asked about our recent interview with the president of the International Fire Fighters’ Association Harold Schaitberger. The union chief finds it galling that some Wall Street “single-year bonuses exceed the average life time benefits” of the average firefighter and paramedic. (See:"This is All About the Money": Pension Fund 'Crisis' a Red Herring, Union Chief Says)

Her response: “The middle class has been under assault now, really, for a generation.”

The 1-2 Punch

The middle class got hit by a "one-two punch" of rising daily living expenses plus flat wages, Warren tells Aaron in the accompanying clip. The world became a “far more dangerous” for American families when Congress “deregulated credit and turned the lender loose," starting in the 1990s, she continues.

As more people turned to buying the necessities with plastic -- including health-care, college tuition and groceries -- Americans became inundated with debt and “more of them started falling over the cliff financially,” she says. “We’ve got a middle class that is under assault from multiple directions.”

Union critics blame the public-sector for ballooning state deficits and lack of jobs. But, Warren says those arguments are simply not supported by the facts.

Unions are one of the few institutions trying to strengthen America’s middle class by fighting for fair wages, she says. “We should be in a world in which we all are a little better off when this country produces more, not that the part left over for those who work for a living keeps shrinking, while those who manage investments get an ever bigger piece.” (From 1976 to 2007, the top 1% of U.S. earners received 58% of all real income growth, according to economics professor Raghuramu Rajan of the University of Chicago's Booth School.)

Madison Showdown

What happens in Wisconsin is likely to set the stage for other bitter labor battles across the country.

What’s at stake? $165 million of taxpayers' money, which could be saved if the state refinanced its debt. If the standoff persists, 1500 jobs will be lost by July and up to 12,000 jobs are eventually at stake.

Gov. Walker says the goal of his budget plan is to close Wisconsin's $3.6 billion shortfall this year while AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says this is all about politics. (See: Gov. Walker Is "Playing Politics With People's Lives," AFL-CIO's Trumka Says)

Whether or not you agree with Walker’s methods, he's like almost every other Governor in the country trying to figure out how to push his or her state’s finances out of the red in the face of growing public-employee pension and health-care benefits.

If labor unions lose this fight, the very fabric of this country will be unrecognizable, says Warren. “If as a country we don’t concentrate on rebuilding that middle class what we knew as America just doesn’t exist anymore."

Launch of New Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Website

A quick video introduction to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) -featuring narration by Ron Howard
 .

The central mission of the CFPB is to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans—whether they are applying for a mortgage, choosing among credit cards, or using any number of other consumer financial products.

In July 2010, Congress created a new federal agency to protect American consumers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be a cop on the beat, working to make consumer financial markets work better for American families. As the first new consumer agency of the 21^st century, we can communicate directly with the people we serve. Today, that work is just beginning. We’re moving quickly—building a terrific team, finding office space, and unpacking a lot of boxes.

Things aren’t all in place yet, but we don’t want to delay reaching out to the people who care about this agency. We’re excited to announce the launch of our website, ConsumerFinance.gov, for one very important reason – to start a conversation with you. With the launch of our site, we will be Open for Suggestions.

We hope you are eager to learn what this new agency will do and how it might affect you. In turn, we are definitely eager to hear what you have to say. Starting today, you can use the Internet to send us your best suggestions and questions for the bureau:

• If you have a video camera, record a YouTube video and upload it as a response to our welcome video athttp://www.youtube.com/CFPB.
• If you like Twitter, tweet your suggestion using the hashtag #CFPB. You can also follow us at http://www.twitter.com/CFPB.
• If you are on Facebook, you can “Like” us at http://www.facebook.com/CFPB, and post your suggestion on our wall.
• If you want to use our website, you can post suggestions at http://www.consumerfinance.gov/openforsuggestions.

In the coming days and weeks, staff who are building this new agency will record direct video responses to some of the most frequent questions and most interesting suggestions. You’ll see the faces and meet the people who come to work every day to make a difference for the American people. We look forward to getting to know a little more about you, too. More is coming, so be sure to check back athttp://www.consumerfinance.gov/openforsuggestions throughout the coming weeks.

Open for Suggestions is just one way that we plan to keep our conversation going with you. Be funny! Be creative! Most of all, be real about what matters to you. This is a great chance to go into your community with a camera, laptop, or mobile phone, or just a pen and paper, and help others participate. Involve your friends, your family, your colleagues and classmates, your faith community, and anyone you know who might be counting on this agency for information and help. If you aren’t ready with a specific comment, that’s OK. Just let us know you are there—and stay in touch.

We can’t do it without you.

Thanks,

Elizabeth Warren