Elizabeth Warren in Obama Administration, Friend or Foe?

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? It appears either the Obama administration is doing a run around Congress or possibly muzzling Elizabeth Warren. Warren has been strongly desired to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Supposedly it would be difficult to get her confirmed in Congress. The Obama administration is hiring Elizabeth Warren as an assistant to the President, to de facto run the Consumer Financial Protection Agency claims The New York Times:

Elizabeth Warren, who conceived of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will oversee its establishment as an assistant to President Obama, an official briefed on the decision said Wednesday evening.

The decision, which Mr. Obama is to announce this week, would allow Ms. Warren, a Harvard law professor, to effectively run the new agency without having to go through a potentially contentious confirmation battle in the Senate. The creation of the bureau is a centerpiece of the Wall Street financial overhaul that Mr. Obama signed in July.

Ms. Warren will be named an assistant to the president, a designation that is held by senior White House staff members, including Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff. She will also be a special adviser to the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, and report jointly to Mr. Obama and Mr. Geithner. The financial regulation law delegated to the Treasury Department the powers of the bureau until a permanent director was appointed and confirmed by the Senate to a five-year term.

The decision does not preclude the possibility that Ms. Warren could eventually be named director, and at the least, she would play a pivotal role in deciding whom to appoint to the job, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt the formal announcement. Several organizations, including ABC, reported the news of Ms. Warren’s impending appointment on Wednesday.

Considering Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers, I suspect this is a case of sidelining Warren, all the while trying to make it appear the administration actually did appoint such a strong advocate for the middle class. Democrats hold the majority in Congress, with a strong endorsement, it doesn't seen possible the much loved, strong advocate for the U.S. Middle Class Elizabeth Warren could be blocked from confirmation.

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Elizabeth Warren

If this woman is nothing more than ANOTHER law professor, what the heck does she know about finance and economics?

you are oh so not knowing her background

Bankruptcy law, consumer finance law, business law.....all of these require a deep understanding of finance...plus the law.

There are all sorts of lawyers, and areas of specialization in which you have to actually know the topic area.

Case in point is intellectual property attorneys, they often have an engineering background, else they could not assist with patents.