Senator Elizabeth Warren: way smarter than "the assembled brain-trust of Wall Street"
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JULY 16, 2013
Elizabeth Warren Reduces CNBC "Squawk Box" Team to Rubble
It's been quite a day for Elizabeth Warren. First, her CFPB finally gets its director, after Reid plus 50 finally show some cojones. Then she appears on CNBC's The Squawk Box and responds to the hostile and ill-informed questioning of that crew, and as Charles Pierce put it:
The next thing they knew, they were sprawled on the canvas, and somebody was waving ammonia capsules under their noses, and Mills Lane was standing above them, waving his arms.(NB - Mills Lane is the legendary boxing ref and TV Judge)
Summary (with interpolations):
Squawk woman: Won't a new Glass Stegall hurt credit creation?
Sen. W: For 50 years we had no banking crisis because of regulation like it.Squawk man: Aren't banking crises inevitable? Shouldn't people just live with them?
Sen. W: (I'm sure trying not to answer simply "Are you f3$%@ng kidding me): It is possible to avoid those crises as we did for 50 years.Squawk man: But what about Continental Illinois, huh, huh, huh?
Sen. W.: I said 50 years (trying not to say "you idiot") until de-regulation in the '80s.Squawk man: But with all due respect Senator, this doesn't have a chance of passing. Why, look at the House repealing Obamacare 38 times. (In other words, why even try????)
Sen. W.: (doing a great job of not looking incredulous and gobsmacked): Due respect yourself, Senator but that's what they said about the CFPB, which has been helping people and just got its director today. Even John McCain supports it. Are you saying why even try? What kind of idiot attitude is that? (OK -- the last part was implied.)