Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) meeting with bank regulators Thursday left bankers reeling, after she questioned why regulators had not prosecuted a bank since the financial crisis.
At one point, Warren asked why the book value of big banks was lower,
when most corporations trade above book value, saying there could be
only two reasons for it.
"One would be because nobody believes that the banks' books are
honest," she said. "Second, would be that nobody believes that the banks
are really manageable. That is, if they are too complex either for
their own institutions to manage them or for the regulators to manage
them."
That set off angry responses to Politico's Morning Money.
"While Senator Warren had every right to ask pointed questions at
today's Senate Banking Committee hearing, her claim that 'nobody
believes' that bank books are honest is just plain wrong," a "top
executive" emailed the financial newsletter. "Perhaps someone ought to
remind the Senator that the campaign is over and she should act
accordingly if she wants to be taken seriously."
Bankers and other members of the finance community have opposed Warren
as she rose from being a Harvard University law school professor to a
Massachusetts senator. They opposed her permanent nomination to head the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which she created.
After Senate
Republicans said that they would filibuster her nomination, she ran for
Senate in Massachusetts. Wall Street donated heavily to her opponent,
former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), but she won the seat. Warren became a
member of the Senate Banking Committee, despite further heavy opposition from banking lobbyists.
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