A Fighting Chance

A FIGHTING CHANCE, by Elizabeth Warren, Metropolitan Books, 2014, 365 pageshttp://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_17?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=a%20fighting%20chance%20elizabeth%20warren&sprefix=a+fighting+chance%2Cstripbooks%2C286http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Chance-Elizabeth-Warren/product-reviews/1627790527/ref=sr_1_1_ha_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1Also see the link below.http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/05/23-1This was a gift from my daughter Peggy. Elizabeth Warren clearly outlines what is wrong with our current social/political structure and what needs to be done. The game is rigged and it will take a populist movement to change it. Warren is an extremely hard worker and very thorough scholar. She knows what it is to come up the hard way. She has great empathy for the confused and battered middle and lower classes. She makes most of our politicians and leaders look shabby at best and grossly self-serving at worst. I would like to see her run for president.The article below describes one ground movement aimed at changing our current political and social structure. The link is to the full report and an abstract follows. FrankThe New Populism: A Movement and Agenda to Transform America’s Economy and Politics.According to the report:For progress to be made, the demand must come from outside the Beltway, from the people up, not Washington down. This will take a movement. And that new populist movement is already being built.Modern-day muckrakers are revealing just how the game is fixed and who is on take. Popular mobilizations – online and in communities – are rising up to challenge the powers that be, in the streets and in the boardrooms. Workers all over America are standing up for decent pay and benefits on the job. Citizens of conscience are raising a moral voice at injustices that need not be. The impoverished, the young, and the locked out are starting to demand jobs and justice. We need new leaders to join the sturdy band willing to take on special interests and big money. This won’t get built in a day, or in one election, or in one administration.But this is America’s hope. America’s founders were deeply suspicious of the dangers of entrenched privilege. The question always was whether the people could use the instruments of democracy to counter the influence of the plutocrats.In that context, during her remarks to the conference audience, Warren declared:The tilt in the playing field is everywhere. When conservatives talk about opportunity, they mean opportunities for the rich to get richer, for the powerful to get more powerful. They don’t mean opportunities for a young person facing $100,000 in student loan debt to start a life, for someone out of work to get back on his feet, for someone who worked hard all her life to retire with dignity.The game is rigged. The rich and the powerful have lobbyists, lobbyists and lawyers and plenty of friends in Congress. Everyone else, not so much.Now we can whine about it. We can whimper. Or we can fight back. Me? I’m fighting back.According to The Hill, after Warren concluded her remarks, the crowd began shouting, "Run, Elizabeth, run.""I appreciate the thought," Warren said with a smile, the newspaper reported. Then added: "I am not running for president."In an interview with The Hill, CFA's co-founder Roger Hickey said, "Hillary Clinton, if she decides to run, should be talking about the kinds of issues we've been talking about today."Noting his skepticism of Clinton's record and her continued silence on key issues now facing the nation, he said: "There are a lot of things that she hasn't clarified."When he took the stage later in the day, Sen. Sanders also sounded the populist message, arguing that the struggle throughout all of American history has been about the "rights" and "dignity" for those who have been refused or deprived of either. Continuing, he said the ultimate goal for progressives has always been to "create a more just and democratic society" than the one we live in. "That's been the struggle," he said and is now."Today," Sanders said, "so few have so much and too many have so little. So I conclude by urging you and begging you not to turn your backs on the political process. Now, more than ever, we need people educating other people; we need people organizing in a way they/we have never done before." I personally think we are at a tipping point. People may be ready to follow at least part of Timothy O'Leary's advice. His advice was turn-on (use drugs). Tune in and dropout. I would like to see people skip the drugs, tune in to what is going on and begin to act on what they see rather than drop out. Where are the churches? Frank

I don't usually read a lot of autobiographies, but I'm a fan of Elizabeth Warren and I've heard good things about this book, so I decided to give it a try. I figured I'd start on it this weekend and finish it later in the week, but as soon as I got into it, I was hooked. The writing is very good and I found myself laughing out loud at times (such as when the author describes setting her kitchen on fire).The first few chapters cover the author's life before she got involved in politics: how she grew up middle class until her father got sick and lost his job; how she earned a debate scholarship and went to college (despite her mother's desire that she focus on finding a husband), then dropped out of college to get married and have a baby. How she finished her college degree and then a law degree, while raising two kids. Then - in what would eventually lead her to becoming nationally known - how she ended up getting involved in bankruptcy law and research into why people declare bankruptcy. As a bankruptcy expert, she lead the (ultimately unsuccessful) fight to keep the law from being changed to enhance banking profits at the expense of those who would no longer have access to bankruptcy protection.After her work on bankruptcy, she eventually ended up leading the COP panel, which oversaw TARP (Trouble Assets Relief Program), more commonly known as the bank bailout. The panel unfortunately had no real power - they could take testimony, but could not compel people to testify, nor could they insist on being present when Treasury (which didn't appear particularly interested in oversight) made the decisions on how to spend the $700 billion that Congress had authorized to bail out the financial system. While the committee's power was essentially limited to issuing reports, they were able to shine enough light on the sweetheart deals that Treasury cut with the big banks to ensure that later deals were harder on the banks, saving the taxpayers billions of dollars.In 2007, Warren had proposed the creation of a new government agency specifically to regulate financial products, as no current agency had that as its primary mission. After the economic meltdown, Congress was finally motivated to act, and Warren convinced Barney Frank (who was in charge of the bill in the House) to insist on a strong new agency. Gathering support for the bill took a concerted push by many people, from nonprofits and unions all the way up to the president, with the big banks fighting hard to destroy or disempower the new agency. This was where Scott Brown entered the story, as (having won Teddy Kennedy's Senate seat) he now had the power to filibuster the bill, which he used to add a $19 billion break for the banks before allowing it to pass. With the change, the Dodd-Frank Act was signed into law.Unfortunately, while Warren had proposed the agency, fought hard for its creation, and then served as its acting head to get it up and running, the banks (and thus the Republican party) were dead set against her being confirmed as the permanent head of the agency. The president gave in and instead nominated Richard Cordray, whom Elizabeth recommended...at which point Senate Republicans announced that they would block ANY nominee unless the law were changed to take power away from the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Due to a typo in the law (the word section was replaced with the word subsection), the new agency would not have much of its power until a director was confirmed. Cordray was given a recess appointment in January 2012, but was not formally confirmed by the Senate until July 2013.After losing the chance to run the agency she had created, Prof Warren intended to return to teaching, but was encouraged to run for the Senate instead. Her family was against it; she was over 60 and had never run for political office. Speaking with residents of the state, however, she became convinced that working people needed to have a strong advocate in the Senate and that she could be that person. She started out far behind the popular Scott Brown in the polls, but eventually won 54-46 in a state that strongly shares her values.Reading this book, sometimes I was laughing (she's a very good writer), sometimes I was angry (as she describes how those with money and power take advantage of desperate Americans), and sometimes I was excited about what she wants to accomplish, but I was always entertained. I highly recommend this book.Full disclosure: I made a small contribution to Prof. Warren's senate campaign.This post originally appeared at Vulcan Ears Book Reviews (vulcanears.com).Edit: I accidentally posted this under the hardcover page, but I actually read the Kindle version. I finished the book before I expected to, since on the Kindle version the main text ends about 60% of the way in, to be followed by photos and (not surprisingly, the author being an academic) tons of endnotes.

A friend of mine in the US recommended this potted biography and political manifesto and although British, I thought I would give it a shot and see what Elizabeth Warren had to say. I found it really interesting. Elizabeth Warren gives us a well written, occasionally funny, occasionally sad story about how she got from being young married mother, through University, to being a Professor of Law, specializing in bankruptcy law, to being the Senior Senator of Massachusetts. During which time she predicted and was appalled by the mortgage crash in the United States and has since been doing her best to give the middle class of the US a fighting chance of doing what she has done, go to school, get a job and be a success. It contains (for me) the most understandable explanation of factors, that I have come across so far, that contributed to the financial crash in the States . You may have seen her on Youtube cross-examining financial authorities in the hope of getting a straight answer, this book was published in 2014, so stops at what I hope is the beginning of her political career. Definitely worth reading.

Fascinating insight into a remarkable woman- and quite heartening to know she is a Senator in these difficult times. This is an easy to read, engaging account of Elizabeth Warren's career up to her election victory.Great explanation of how the financial crisis came about , and how the powerful worked to shift focus of blame and consequences onto the victims rather than the guilty.Laughed out loud, cried and greatly encouraged that such an honest and committed woman is in the US Senate.

Item as described, No problems. Would buy from this vendor again.

Senator Elizabeth Warren truly cares about the welfare and opportunities available for all Americans. A true progressive!

Very readable. I join the ranks of those hoping that this reluctant politician will be persuaded to aspire to higher office: President of the US, or at least Vice-President.