by Jeff Sovern
I've been listening to the audio version of Simon Johnson and James Kwak's excellent book, 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown. The book describes how financial institutions used their power, beginning in the eighties, to persuade Congress to repeal banking regulations and to resist new regulation, leading to the financial crisis, and how they continue to use that power to oppose regulation (which will presumably lead a a future financial crisis). At one point, the authors include a list of bankers in the Obama Administration as evidence of the influence that bankers wield in the Administration (the book has a similar list for the Bush Administration). So I began to wonder: how many consumer advocates have positions in the Obama Administration? (the 13 bankers in the title of the book and the headline above refers not to the number of bankers in the Administration but to the number of bankers in a meeting opposing regulation of derivatives back in the nineties) Are there more bankers or consumer advocates in the Obama Administration? My definitions of both consumer advocate and the Administration are loose, as my list will demonstrate. I would include Elizabeth Warren even though she isn't technically a member of the Administration, because she has played a key role in the CFPA proposal. MIchael Barr in Treasury has pushed strongly for consumer protection legislation. Though the FTC isn't, strictly speaking, part of the Administration, I would include Julie Brill because the president nominated her to the Commission (but I'm not sure if David Vladeck should be included because he's appointed by the FTC itself). That's the list I could come up with off the top of my head. Who am I leaving out?
UPDATE: Larry Kirsch has pointed out that Eric Stein, formerly of the Center for Responsible Lending, is at DOT.
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