With last week's dismal growth news and the public's mistrust for the financial-reform bill, the Treasury Department is launching a communication assault to try to explain its economic policies. It began yesterday evening with a speech from Secretary Tim Geithner in New York, followed today by a New York Times op-ed titled, with some irony, "Welcome to the Recovery." Also this week, top Treasury officials are fanning out around the country -- Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Barr to North Carolina, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin to Philadelphia and Boston -- to promote the new financial-regulation law.
The message on financial reform is that the bill is much needed, that it deals not just with the past but with future crises, and that implementation will be swift and efficient. "Our system allowed too much freedom for predation, abuse and excess risk, but as we put in place rules to correct for those mistakes, we have to strive to achieve a careful balance and safeguard the freedom, competition, and innovation that are essential for growth," Geithner said yesterday, challenging business leaders to start lending again and embrace transparency ahead of the new rules. A fond hope. He also promised new regulatory appointments, including "new champions of consumer financial protection."
Is he talking about Elizabeth Warren? Warren -- the favorite among reformers (and in the administration) to head the new consumer-protection bureau -- faces opposition from the business community and congressional conservatives, but progressives have made the administration's willingness to fight on her behalf a test of its commitment to consumer reform. (Somewhat unfortunately: While Warren is the best choice, Barr, the favorite candidate among those in the administration who shy away from nominating Warren, would also be a fine appointee.) Ultimately, however, the decision is in the hands of the president.
This week's big messaging rollout emphasizes exactly why Warren would be such a good fit for the job. In the previous 18 months, she's developed enormous public credibility overseeing the TARP program and pushing for the new consumer-protection law. Her appearances as a public commentator have won her plaudits from the left and the right, and her no-nonsense Midwestern briskness makes her an appealing spokesperson. During a confirmation fight -- even one she may lose in the face of unified Republican opposition -- she would be an articulate communicator on behalf of the financial-reform law's most tangible provisions. Five minutes of confirmation-hearing sparring with Republicans like Richard Shelby or Jim Bunning in front of the Senate Banking Committee might be a better public message for the administration than any half-dozen speeches.
-- Tim Fernholz
