Professor Warren is straightforward, persuasive and charming. And this was no friendly audience.
I had the good fortune of hearing Elizabeth Warren speak this morning in Washington, DC at the US Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness. The Center’s byline is “Ensuring Competiveness in a Post-Regulatory Reform Environment”. I had never seen Professor Warren before in person. First impression: She was smaller than I thought. Heck, with all that publicity that has been swirling around her for the past two years, I thought she’d be ten feet tall — or at least as tall as six foot, eight inch Baylor basketball star Brittney Griner. Nope, she’s rather slight and academic. Second impression: She is really good; straightforward, persuasive and… well… charming.
And this was no friendly audience. Professor Warren followed Congressman Spencer Bachus of Alabama to the lectern. He is the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. The Congressman rather derisively referred to Professor Warren as “a nice lady”. He then went on to suggest she and her agency — the CFPB — were omnipotent and would destroy competitive markets, while imposing a Maoist (that’s no typo) style of “total regulation” on the capital markets.
Professor Warren did not take the bait. Instead she decided to stake out a place on the high road, a place she seemed both familiar and comfortable traveling. To that end, she simply ignored Congressman Bachus’s efforts to mischaracterize her position and attack her character and gender. She emphasized instead that her decision to reach out to the Chamber and speak at this particular conference was in furtherance of finding “common ground”. Nice.
That common ground began with the notion that all sides favored one thing: Competition. Everything is done to promote competition. To make sure competition is robust and fair, Professor Warren explained that a strong, consistent set of rules were essential. No one benefits from market chaos where some participants are able to break the law. As an example, she said, “let’s take the perspective of a baseball player who chooses not to take steroids.” Regulation is simply that — a set of rules that all market participants must follow.
Professor Warren’s remarks were grounded in common sense and we wish her luck. Her main objective for the CFPB, which we applaud, is achieving some level of fairness and transparency for consumers in the purchase of financial products, from credit cards to home mortgages. But the room was filled with skeptics who wanted none of it. They believe all regulation is evil and only harms business.
My attendance at today’s event at the Chamber reminded me of the harsh reality that we have two teams in Washington. Two sides, Democrat and Republican; left and right; conservative and liberal. Call it what you like. Despite her best efforts at finding common ground, between those two sides even the mighty Elizabeth Warren will not so easily succeed.