Professional left prays to their goddess Elizabeth Warren

Via Memeorandum

Save us St. Elizabeth - you're our only hope!  Well they pray in between their not-so-subtle threats to the White House, "give us Elizabeth or suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune in November:

Within hours and possibly minutes I expect the president will name Elizabeth Warren to lead the new consumer protection agency, and if he does, the Democratic base will erupt and turn out to vote in far greater numbers than any current poll suggests.

I could be wrong; Obama might give up at the last minute, which would be the last betrayal of the Democratic base and very possibly the death knell of the Democratic House of Representatives. But if he names Warren, the pundits be will amazed, astonished and flabbergasted by the lift this would give to the Democratic base and by the voter turnout that would follow.

Jeepers, I wonder if she can heal the planet and slow the rising oceans too.   We haven't seen this kind of messianic worship from the professional left since way back in 2008.  I am still reeling from how well that all worked out.

Still we should probably all bow before her or something.   Those who fail to worship at her altar  yes I mean you Megan McArdle, incur the wrath of the progressive punditry.  This is a wrath so vengeful it would leave you praying for something less painful, like maybe a plague of locusts:

The old joke* about Richard Nixon asked “How can you tell when he’s lying?”

The answer: ”When his lips move.”

I’ve finally come to the conclusion that something similar must be said about Megan McArdle. Perhaps lying is too harsh a word — but the serial errors that all fall on the side that supports her initial claims and that recur again and again in her work suggest to me that something other than mere intellectual sloth and sloppiness is the driver.

Ordinarily, such a record wouldn’t matter much, especially in journalism. In theory, a series of clips as riddled with error as McArdle’s would end most careers in high prestige journalism. Hot Air might still find a use for you, but The Atlantic?

That is one of the nicer posts in response to a "Megan McArdle blasphemes the goddess Elizabeth" post.  There is worse on the internet, thank you Al Gore:

Part of me admires McMegan’s guts as she pledges to dazzle us all with this incredible leap over the Snake River Canyon of her own sloppiness, secure in the knowledge that she will safely land with her feet on the ground, and all of the naysayers will have to sadly sheath their long knives and be forevermore shamed into silence by her awesome awesomeness.

On the other hand, it really doesn’t matter if she spirals helplessly, Wile E. Coyote-style, into the canyon only to land with a barely perceptible thud in a mushroom cloud of dust. At The Atlantic, her wrongness is part of her charm, it drives traffic to the site. She is a five-car pile-up of clown cars laden with circus geeks who bite the heads off of chickens. You can’t look away, and it is all for free on the internet.

Thank you Al Gore.

Ok, you get the idea - don't dare criticize Elizabeth Warren.  This sainted figure gave us the scholarly report that was used in nearly every left-wing argument for health care.  Surely you remember the dreaded "health care is the number one  cause of bankruptcy" study?  What could go wrong if we put her in charge of Wall Street?  Brent Budowsky chooses not to ask that question.  Instead he focuses on all that will be well once again in a world with Elizabeth Warren as the new sheriff of Wall Street:

If Obama names Warren, consumers would have the strongest possible friend fighting for them all day, every day, at a time of major consumer rip-offs and disastrous consumer confidence that would be lifted with the Warren selection.

If Obama names Warren, veterans and military families who have endured rip-offs and abuses would have the strongest possible friend with Elizabeth Warren.

If Obama names Warren, small business would have the strongest possible ally as she champions fair treatment by small business that has been a piñata being abused by large financial institutions.

And as an added benefit, Budowsky now assures the White House Warren's nomination can turn back the tsunami headed towards Democrats in November.  Are you sold yet?

Uh huh - nominating a Harvard prof no one has heard of to a post no one has heard of will turn this whole thing around.  And I'm leading the Jets to the Super Bowl.  Personally.  After I bat clean-up for the Yankees in the World Series.

 Well no really, right after I bat clean-up for the Phillies in the World Series - in a bikini.  It could happen.

Elizabeth Warren: The economy will face another “very serious problem”

In a CNBC interview Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel, warned that half of all commercial mortgages will be underwater by years end.  Warren explains the ominous implications of this news:

“They are [mostly] concentrated in the mid-sized banks,” Warren told CNBC. “We now have 2,988 banks—mostly midsized, that have these dangerous concentrations in commercial real estate lending."

As a result, the economy will face another “very serious problem” that will have to be resolved over the next three years, she said, adding that things are unlikely to return to normalcy in 2010.

Warren's concern concentrates on the potential for problems in midsized banks, but also refers to plans to sell the 7.7 billion shares held by the Treasury acquired during the bailouts last year. The implications of a divestiture of that magnitude creates a good deal of uncertainty and Warren claims to have had difficulty gaining clarity on the company's future plans.

Warren is much more direct, however, when discussing the path forward for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

Warren said it’s time for the government to "pull the plug" on mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“I’m one of those people who never liked public-private partnership to begin with. I think what they did was use public when public was useful and private when private was useful,” she said. “And I think we’ve got to rethink that whole thing.”

I wonder what Maxine Waters will have to say about that news. Perhaps Warren hasn't heard the news there is no crisis at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Much of what Warren says in this interview is not necessarily news. One of my earliest posts on this blog focused on an interview with Warren where she made the same points about the commercial lending market. Warren warned of this again in February prompting Tim Geithner to suggest a less than inspiring solution to the potential problem. Again, not much new there. Perhaps what is newsworthy here is her conclusion, we will not return to normalcy in 2010.

Frankly, this news much like Warren's previous warnings, isn't likely to get lots of play in the media because it offers little hope for Democrats.  One of the more interesting pieces in the news yesterday was an admission, albeit anonymously the Democrats were knowingly sacrificing their majority in voting for Obamacare. Their best possible hope would be a sudden resurrection of the economy in time for the midterm elections. Warren all but seals the tomb on that potential. It is almost unfathomable what damage Democrats would take at the polls should a string of midsized banks begin to collapse before that time. I would think Geithner's suggested bailouts could be a final straw. I am quite confident Democrats will be devastated in November regardless, so let's hope that happens without the "assistance" of another banking crisis.  There will be enough to clean up as it is.

Elizabeth Warren: Geithner Spreading $2 Bets All over the table in Vegas

Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel charged with inspection of the bank bailout funds through TARP appeared on "Morning Joe" today. Warren described the initial half of the bailout funds $350 billion spent by Paulson as the "Don't Ask Don't Tell," funding meaning the money was given to the banks without requiring financial institutions to report how it was being spent. Geithner is spending the second half spreading it around in smaller doses to cover potential threats in many different facets of the financial industry. The bottom line, however, financial institutions are still holding much of the troubled assets on their books rather than selling them and taking the losses that would necessarily follow the assets being sold at their more realistic market value.

"By and large, the toxic assets that brought us to this point are still on the books of the banks," she said.

Warren makes it clear the threats arising from these assets are far from over. Watch the video; it is rather long but an interesting and often disturbing exchange.

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Warren seems concerned the larger threat still looming is in the commericial mortgage market which is largely held by mid-sized and smaller financial institutions. Should a small bubble begin to emerge in the market, we could easily end up where we were last Fall. When pressed by Scarborough as to whether the bailouts saved the economy from a complete collapse, Warren appears somewhat reluctant to give an opinion. She does finally admit that though there would have been some pain and some large institutions would no longer be in business, it seemed unlikely the death spiral would have occurred.