Good News on the Bailout

One of my professors, Elizabeth Warren, is in charge of the Congressional panel charged with monitoring the bailout. Prof. Warren is sharp, but even more importantly her mode of analysis is families, not banks. Her approach, made clear in the NY Times article below, is based on the idea that our banks and our economy won't be healthy until our families are financially healthy. Professor Warren has been advocating about personal financial issues: particularly related to bankruptcy and bad lending practices for years. I guess it's better late than never that people are finally paying attention to what she has to say: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/business/02tarp.html?em

Another great Warren idea that might get more traction now: create a Financial Product Safety Commission similar to the Consumer Product Safety Commission created in the 1970s. Hillary Clinton proposed something similar in the primary that was clearly based on Warren's idea. You can read more about the proposal here (free registration required): http://www.democracyjournal.org/article.php?ID=6528