Dear Commons Community,

Elizabeth Warren dominated a lot of the news yesterday as a potential Democratic presidential nominee. A number of evening talk shows also speculated on her potential candidacy.  Today she gave a major speech calling attention to the vulnerability of the American banking system.  As reported in The Huffington Post:

“Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned in a speech Tuesday that the problem of banks considered “too big to fail” has only gotten worse since the 2008 financial crisis, potentially sowing the seeds of a future crisis.

“Today, the four biggest banks are 30 percent larger than they were five years ago. And the five largest banks now hold more than half of the total banking assets in the country,” Warren said in a keynote address at a conference on the future of financial reform put on by the Roosevelt Institute, a think tank. “Who would have thought five years ago, after we witnessed firsthand the dangers of an overly concentrated financial system, that the ‘too big to fail’ problem would only have gotten worse?”

Warren urged the passage of a new Glass-Steagall Act that would separate commercial and investment banking. The Depression-era legislation was repealed in 1999 with huge bipartisan majorities, allowing depository institutions to undertake riskier securities trading. Warren, along with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) have called to revive the legislation, but it stands little chance of passing.

In her speech, Warren urged those who oversee bank rules to set a timeline to address the problem of bank concentration. She has previously shamed bank regulators for their poor performance, asking them in congressional hearings to recount the last time they took a Wall Street bank to trial.”

Although there are almost two years before the presidential nomination process starts, Sen. Warren presents an interesting challenge/alternative to Hilary Clinton.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Following on the heels of an article in the New Republic on the speculation of Elizabeth Warren challenging Hilary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, The Huffington Post had a headline today that there are three words that strike terror in the hearts of Wall Street bankers and corporate executives: “President Elizabeth Warren”.

The anxiety over Warren grew Monday after the New Republic article suggested the bank-bashing Democratic senator from Massachusetts could mount a presidential bid in 2016 and would not necessarily defer to Hillary Clinton — who is viewed as far more business-friendly — for the party’s nomination.  As reported in Politico:

“And the fear is not only that Warren, who channels an increasingly popular strain of Occupy Wall Street-style anti-corporatism, might win. That is viewed by many political analysts as a slim possibility. It is also that a Warren candidacy, and even the threat of one, would push Clinton to the left in the primaries and revive arguments about breaking up the nation’s largest banks, raising taxes on the wealthy and otherwise stoking populist anger that is likely to also play a big role in the Republican primaries.

A spokesperson for Warren declined to comment on whether she would consider a presidential bid against Clinton, though Warren has previously said she has no plans to run. People close to Warren note that she signed a letter from female Democratic senators urging Clinton to run in 2016. And Warren associates, mindful of any appearance of creating the narrative of a Warren-for-president campaign, have corresponded with Clinton associates to stress that they didn’t fuel the New Republic story by Noam Scheiber.”

Interesting stuff!

Tony