LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Elizabeth Warren Has Much to Offer

An important trait in choosing a U.S. Senator is political insight and creativity, that is, the ability to conceive of new ways to serve the common good or to solve seemingly intractable fiscal or social problems. Elizabeth Warren has demonstrated abundantly that she not only has the ability to generate new ideas and defend them analytically, but she can pursue good ideas to useful conclusions within the political environment of Washington, D.C.

She has published 10 important books on aspects of economics that affect ordinary people as well as the financial industry, and many influential briefs and papers in legal journals. She discovered the fact that much of personal bankruptcy is due to catastrophic expenses, often medical in nature, and not to carelessness or indifference, and she proposed changes in bankruptcy laws relevant to this discovery.

She conceived of the Consumer Protection Agency in a 2007 article in Democracy Journal, and worked with Congressman Barney Frank in 2009-10 to draft enabling legislation as part of the Dodd-Frank Bill to regulate the financial industry. The agency was approved and set up in 2011.

She predicted the crash of 2007-08 fully two years before it occurred on the basis of rates of bankruptcy and foreclosures and on the great number of risky securities in housing and futures.

She advocates regulation of the financial industry sufficient to avoid future devastating cycles of boom and bust.

One can compare these few (of many) examples of Ms. Warren’s insight and creativity with the record of Sen. Scott Brown, who has not advanced a single original political idea.

Diana Warren

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