Michael McAuliff's well written book review of "A Fighting Chance," by Senator Elizabeth Warren, reveals her inside look at the old-boy's network, and the "lost opportunity to help regular people," she views was blown by Larry Summer's and Tim Geithner's priority of saving big Wall Street banks. Elizabeth Warren's New Book Skewers The White House Boys Club, also suggests a theme of male insiders keeping female outsiders at a distance, and looks like it will he worth a read when it becomes available next week.
Former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and former National Economic Council boss Larry Summers come up for particular criticisms.
"He teed it up this way: I had a choice," Warren writes. "I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don't listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People -- powerful people -- listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule: They don't criticize other insiders."
Warren considered this to be a warning because she was leading congressional panel reviewing, The Troubled Asset Relief Program, (TARP.)
And, she says when she asked Geithner about helping the homeowners struggling to save their homes he admitted "[d]espite the way it was sold, TARP was about saving banks, pure and simple." ..He admitted that really was not the goal, she writes.
"The banks could manage only so many foreclosures at a time, and Treasury wanted to slow down the pace so banks wouldn't be overwhelmed," Warren writes, recounting Geithner's explanation. "And this was where the new foreclosure program came in: it was just big enough to 'foam the runway' for them."
"There it was," Warren writes. "The Treasury foreclosure program was intended to foam the runway to protect against a crash landing by the banks. Millions of people were getting tossed out on the street, but the secretary of the Treasury believed the government's most important job was to provide a soft landing for the tender fannies of the banks. ... "Oh Lord."
She praises President Obama for supporting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but always says he has to take responsibility for choosing the team he did.
The failure to do more for regular Americans, and to do more to rein in too-big-to-fail banks, still stings today. "The lost opportunity still makes me want to scream with frustration," she writes. "Small business owners, homeowners, men and women whose jobs had disappeared: these weren't numbers on the page, these were millions of people who lost everything."
When the White House decided to name someone else to be director of the CFPB, one of the President's adviser told her she could be a 'cheerleader' for he new agency. In a "hot" hour long meeting with the President on the issues she reports she told him:
"You're jamming me, Elizabeth," Obama told her, and she writes that he "urged me not to overplay my hand."
"Trust me," Obama said.
A Fighting Chance promises to be a widely read and much discussed book. I look forward to reading it.
7:27 PM PT:
Posting History for HoundDog April 17, Please check them out.
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'Friend or Foe, Christie knew, and emulated Nixon's enemies list, in punishments' says APP editorial
Friend or Foe, Christie Knew," says Asbury Park Press' editorial board. (APP.)
Friends and foes alike are ...
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
23 |
51 |
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Obama frustrated with states not expanding Medicaid out of "political spite"
Obama Is Frustrated With States That Chose Not To Expand Medicaid Out Of 'Political Spite', "for no other reason than political spite" against him," - a decision he says has "been hurtful to millions.
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
15 |
33 |
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Clinton trusted more than G.O.P. because liberal media covering Bridgegate not Benghazi - Fox News
Ellie Sandmeyer, of Media Matters, writes Fox Surprised Public Isn't Buying Its Efforts To Smear Clinton. Fox News is embarrassed today that it's ...
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
25 |
19 |
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'Who are the Koch brothers and what do they want?' asks Bernie Sanders
Sen. Bernie Sanders has such keen and brilliant insights that where ever he looks and speaks he elevates our perspectives as he does ...
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
20 |
34 |
1 |
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Christie, Bush, and Paul are top GOP 2016 picks, Hillary tops Biden and Warren, HRC tops CC by 8
Here's a case where I read Fox News so you don't have to. If the election were held today Hillary would top Christie by 8 points. But remember folks, our country has such a hard-core group of ...
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
25 |
18 |
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Ebola out in Guinea is a new strain, did not spread from previous outbreak, death toll rises to 120
The Ebola Virus in West Africa Is New Strain, Scientists Say, and the outbreak in Guinea that has killed more than ...
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
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30 |
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Koch Brothers' net worth tops $100 billion!
David De Jong, of Bloomberg.com announces the news that the Koch Brothers Net Worth Tops $100 Billion as TV Warfare Escalates.
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HoundDog |
04/17/2014 |
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48 |
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Mastro Report proving to be a political, legal and public relations nightmare for Christie
Mark J. Magyar, of NJ Spotlight, provides with an long and salacious reports of how ...
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HoundDog |
04/16/2014 |
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122 |
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