Can Elizabeth Warren Run the CFPB?

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

I only have one real concern about Elizabeth Warren as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Washington Post’s Neil Irwin outlines it here:

Warren has an exceptional track record as an intellectual and as a public spokeswoman. But those are only a small slice of the responsibilities of an agency head. The leader of the new consumer financial protection bureau will need to hire hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, create an administrative structure from scratch, and oversee what is likely to be a long and arduous process of writing regulations that will govern millions of transactions. He or she will need to be sufficiently savvy in the inter-agency rulemaking process to avoid getting rolled by other regulators, particularly Sheila Bair at the FDIC and a newly named vice-chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve. Then there’s the more basic task of maintaining good relationships in the White House and on Capitol Hill.

Looking at Warren’s CV, it appears that her current job, as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, is her most extensive experience in or around government (she has also served on the FDIC’s Committee on Economic Inclusion, among other advisory roles). She may well be an extraordinary manager who can finesse the policymaking process and who would have as deft a touch at managing an agency’s internal politics as she is at managing her public profile. But given that she doesn’t have that experience — or much policymaking experience at all — on her resume, the burden of proof will likely be on she and her allies to make that case.

I’m not really sure how you make a judgment about this. It’s a serious issue, since starting up and running a big government bureaucracy is something that requires a very specific kind of administrative talent. But how do you know if someone who lacks previous managerial experience is likely to make a good manager?

Obviously, a personal interview as well as references from people who know her would be a big part of it. Beyond that, I think my take is that I’d choose Warren but insist that she hire a couple of very experienced, very DC-savvy deputies. That’s a combination that often works well.

Via Ezra Klein, who notes that Irwin also mentions the possibility that Warren could end up being too much of a consumer protection crusader. Given the institutional pressures working in the opposite direction, though, I doubt very much that this is a big issue.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate