Elizabeth Warren Lays Down Some Principles

Felix Salmon reports that Elizabeth Warren is off and running with the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), by laying down regulatory principles, rather than conventional "thou shall not" rules of operation.  In his post, he expands on the difference in her approach to regulating versus the conventional approach used by the banks and their slimy lobbyists within the DC Beltway:

The fact is that it makes perfect sense for a consumer-protection bureau to regulate from the point of view of the consumer, rather than from the point of view of bank managers. Warren’s simple questions are good ones, and they’re hard to capture with rules. If banks provide valuable products to consumers, then consumers will value them. If, on the other hand, banks create products which are designed to prey on human foibles, then consumers will come to believe, in Warren’s words, that “dealing with banks is like handling snakes – do it long enough and you’ll get bit.”

If Warren can continue making in roads by challenging the financial industry in cleaning up their act and creating a long-lasting framework to the benefit of consumers, the Democrats may have a real contender for delivering the "Change" that Obama himself has failed to deliver.