FWIS3

My new hero

First person to give me hope in a long time.

That was awesome!

Loved how she threw their own argument back at them and left them scrambling to keep holding their position even knowing they just got their asses handed to them.
Makes me wonder who pays them to promote this crap.

Elizabeth Warren has impressed me greatly since she entered the national stage as the consumer protection advisor to President Obama.

I was thinking about this video and topic a bit, and I think one of the biggest things that's messed up in modern day economic policy is this tacit assumption by many people that the free market should do its thing because it is the most perfect thing we have for running the economy. And yes, very often the market is a great thing that solves a lot of issues, but the thing is it's not always perfect- markets fail in the form of things like monopolies and externalities, which affect the lives of millions of people and often in awful ways that are very real. Everyone knows that pretty well, and yet more than a few people like to stick their heads in the sand on this issue and pretend everything will be ok and one shouldn't need regulation for it.

Of course the issue is I also doubt much will come of Warren's efforts because too many politicians are in bed with the bankers (check this chart out, and note how it's not just Republicans who are the issue here), and that's really what's driving things in many ways. $662 million dollars really is what it costs to effectively shut down both houses and parties on doing anything about the issue at hand.

I will say though, I do kinda wish she hadn't mentioned McCain as a great guy to have on your side when it comes to a financial issue- my recollection is during the crisis during the 2008 election he shut down his campaign to do all of nothing, which in large part cost him the election.