A soft-spoken but incisive and insistent critic of the cozy relationship between government and the banking industry, Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren is a top pick among Democratic leaders for head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, says a story in The Wall Street Journal today. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will come into being if the Wall Street reform bill passes Congress next week as expected.
Warren, who chaired the TARP Congressional Oversight panel, has been a vociferous supporter of such an agency since 2007 and went on something of a media blitz in favor of its creation over the past year.
Other candidates include Michael Barr, Treasury assistant secretary and aUniversity of Michigan law professor with strong interest in consumer finance; Democratic state attorneys general Martha Coakley of Massachusetts, Lisa Madigan of Illinois and Lori Swanson of Minnesota; Susan Wachter of the University of Pennslyvania's Wharton School, who served in the Clinton Department of Housing and Urban Development; and former bank regulator Nicolas Retsinas of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing studies.