Elizabeth Warren to the Rescue

I was somehow reassured to hear on NPR recently that Harvard credit expert and consumer credit activist Elizabeth Warren is overseeing the handouts, er, I mean bailouts to the financial sector. Sure she and 3 other people are only working part time and still haven't found office space (according to the Huffington Post), but she is a creditable expert who's on the side of the average Joan.

Of course, the less good news is that she admits she hasn't got any idea what the heck is happening to the money. No wonder Congress shied away from bailing out the auto industry without a plan in place first.

Hmmm. Wonder if she'd be up for a job in the new administration?

Further Reading: "Why Elizabeth Warren is an Inspired Choice to oversee TARP," from Conde Nast Portfolio

Related Post: More Children Have Experienced Bankruptcy than Divorce.

More Children have Experienced Bankruptcy than Divorce

...according to Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, author of the books All Your Worth and The Two-Income Trap. (Hat tip to We Need to be Debt Free where you can find her hour-long lecture The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class. She explains why middle class families with children are perched precariously on the edge of solvency. )

Warren notes that most of us know a number of people who have been through divorces, but we don't know about the bankruptcies, even though there are more of them. People hide the reasons for life changes (we're moving in with Bob's parents because of their health or we're moving away for better job opportunities) when in fact bankruptcy is the cause.

Bankruptcies are more common among parents than any other group. According to Warren, a specialist in bankruptcy, creditor and debtor law, it isn't because people are irresponsible. Most bankruptcies, she says, are caused by either job loss, family breakup, or unexpected health problems of a wage earner or family member so that one wage earner must stay home to nurse the patient. Doesn't exactly make a person feel safe.

Hmmm.

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