Creating the Consumer Protection Agency

Will Liz Warren or someone else be tapped to run the new consumer financial protection agency? What will the agency look like, what will its priorities be, and how will it manage the transition?   In today's Wall Street Journal, Sudeep Reddy takes a look at these and other questions surrounding the new agency.  An excerpt:

The president's choice of a director, subject to Senate confirmation, is almost certain to be controversial, given the power of the position and the fight over whether to create the agency in the first place.

Like Joseph Kennedy Sr., the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the new director will shape the powerful agency's public image, initial priorities and starting lineup.

Democratic leaders in Congress say their top pick for the post is Elizabeth Warren, the high-profile Harvard law professor and an outspoken critic of what she sees as a too-cozy relationship between government and bankers.

Other potential candidates include Michael Barr, a Treasury assistant secretary and University of Michigan law professor with a longstanding interest in consumer finance; Democratic state attorneys general Martha Coakley of Massachusetts, Lisa Madigan of Illinois and Lori Swanson of Minnesota; Susan Wachter of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, who served in the Clinton Department of Housing and Urban Development; and Nicolas Retsinas of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing studies, a former bank regulator and a low-income housing specialist.