NYT editorial: Elizabeth Warren

President Obama should nominate Elizabeth Warren to head the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, and not only because of her credentials.

Ms. Warren — a bankruptcy expert at Harvard Law School, an Oklahoma native whose father was bilked of his savings by a business partner — developed the idea for the bureau in a 2007 article. Since then, as head of the panel that monitors the bank bailouts, she has become one of the nation’s most prominent consumer advocates.

There are other candidates, of course. What Mr. Obama needs to recognize is that this particular job, at this particular time, is about more than competence. As the reform bill went through Congress, the banks were unrelenting in trying to kill or weaken the bureau. Having failed, they want influence in selecting its director.

Meanwhile, polls have shown public mistrust or misunderstanding of the administration’s economic policies. Mr. Obama’s choice to head the bureau must demonstrate that he cares more about ordinary Americans than about Wall Street, that he understands that the public interest differs — sometimes sharply — from the interests of big banks. He needs someone the banks do not want, and that someone is Ms. Warren.

(More here.)