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Elizabeth Warren on Jobs
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Before CFPA, banks themselves chose bank regulators
Big banks had perfected the art of circumventing new laws designed to protect people. More than a dozen federal laws already addressed consumer credit, but enforcing these laws was spread out among 7 different federal agencies--7! Moreover, not a single
one of those agencies had as its primary job protecting consumers from dangerous credit products. Not one.And there was another ugly problem: Guess who picked the regulators who had oversight responsibility for the individual banks? Often it was the
banks themselves. The results shouldn't have surprised anyone: regulators often tried to outdo each other to be the friendliest, which shifted their role from watchdog to lapdog.
So credit regulation was a tangled mess, and enforcement was spotty at
best. We needed an agency--one agency--that would be responsible for writing new rules, for updating the rules as lenders changed their practices, and for enforcing the rules. [That became the CFPA, Consumer Finance Protection Agency, chaired by Warren].
Source: A Fighting Chance, by Elizabeth Warren, p.133-4
, Apr 22, 2014
Unions fight for their workers; not like corporate lobbyists
The way I saw it, unions had helped build America's middle class. They fought for better wages and reasonable hours. They fought for safer factories. They fought for pensions and retirement security. They fought for health care coverage.
And every one of those benefits spread to other workers--union and non-union--which made the whole middle class stronger and more secure. And when the squeeze was on, unions showed up to fight for Social Security, for Medicare, for a higher minimum
wage, for equal pay for women. They fought for the values that keep us strong.Often enough during the campaign, I would hear the phrase "corporate and labor influence in politics," as if "corporate" and "labor" were somehow two sides of the same coin.
Really? Does anyone believe that an army of lobbyists fighting for tax loopholes and special breaks for one corporation is the same as the unions fighting for Social Security and equal pay?
Source: A Fighting Chance, by Elizabeth Warren, p.260
, Apr 22, 2014
Say the word long and loud: "Union!"
Unions across the country were losing ground, as fewer workplaces were unionized. But unions were also losing ground politically. More than one president of a local union told me that other politicians would come to them for money and endorsements.
But when they left the union hall, those same politicians spoke only in code, never saying the word "union" in their speeches. I think it mattered that in speeches and rallies and roundtable discussions, I said the word, long and loud: "Union!"
Source: A Fighting Chance, by Elizabeth Warren, p.260
, Apr 22, 2014
Social Contract: Americans don't become wealthy in isolation
Warren rejects the concept that it is possible for Americans to become wealthy in isolation. "You built a factory out there? Good for you," she says. "But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired
workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone
to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did."She continues: "Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless.
Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."
Source: By Lucy Madison on CBS News
, Sep 22, 2011
Make it easier for workers who want to organize
We need to make it easier for workers who want to organize to have the chance to do so.
If people want to work together for better wages, for better health care, and for better working conditions, they should have the right to do so.
Source: 2012 Senate campaign website, www.elizabethwarren.com
, Sep 15, 2011
Hardworking families are the real economy
If you're asking me if all hope is lost, the answer is no. Right now Congress has finally stepped up and is taking this up. They're winning. They're starting to act.
Now, Wall Street's back in business and, boy, so are the lobbyists. They are thundering through Washington in numbers that we've never seen before. So yeah, it's going to be a tougher lift than it would have been six months ago.
But that doesn't change the reality. And that is: Congress is moving and they are going to write a set of new rules. The only question is, will those rules be written to benefit ordinary, hardworking families, what
I think of as the real economy. But will those rules be written to benefit a handful of giant financial institutions.
Source: YouTube: NWO Economics Series, video BZWY4LJ789Y
, Apr 1, 2010
Raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2016.
Warren co-sponsored Minimum Wage Fairness Act
Congressional summary: Increases the federal minimum wage for employees to:
- $8.20 an hour beginning 6 months after enactment
- $9.15 an hour beginning 1 year later,
- $10.10 an hour beginning 2 years later, and
- an amount determined by increases in the Consumer Price Index, beginning annually after 3 years.
- Increases the federal minimum wage for tipped employees to $3.00 an hour beginning 6 months after enactment, with annual CPI adjustments.
Proponent's argument in favor (RaiseTheMinimumWage.com): The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour remains decades out of date, and the federal minimum wage for tipped workers--$2.13 per hour--has not increased in over 20 years. The minimum wage of the past provided significantly more buying power than it does today. The minimum wage of $1.60 an hour in 1968 would be $10.56 today when adjusted for inflation.
Opponent's argument against: (Neil King in Wall Street Journal,
Feb. 24, 2014): The CBO concluded that a jump in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour could eliminate 500,000 jobs. For Republicans, the report provided ammunition that a higher minimum wage would kill jobs. Democrats pointed to the CBO's findings that the higher wage would lift 900,000 people out of poverty. But both sides missed a key finding: That a smaller hike from the current $7.25 to $9.00 an hour would cause almost no pain, and still lift 300,000 people out of poverty while raising the incomes of 7.6 million people.Congressional Budget Office report:: Once fully implemented, the $10.10 option would reduce total employment by about 500,000 workers, or 0.3%. Some people earning slightly more than $10.10 would also have higher earnings, due to the heightened demand for goods and services. The increased earnings for low-wage workers would total $31 billion. Accounting for all increases and decreases, overall real income would rise by $2 billion.
Source: S.1737 & H.R.1010 14-S1737 on Nov 19, 2013
Page last updated: Aug 18, 2016