Tim Fernholz explores the story behind Elizabeth Warren’s new job — and what it means for progressives.
Progressives have hailed Elizabeth Warren as a dogged consumer advocate, unafraid to speak truth to power, but on the right and among business interests, she is considered, somewhat absurdly, a threat to the free market. For centrists and the Obama administration, the decision of whether to appoint her to lead the new agency became not just a question of policy — how to launch an agency that President Barack Obama made the center of his commitment to financial reform — but also one freighted with symbolic implications: Does the administration stand with the populist left or with the banks?
