Elizabeth Warren: The Essential Interviews

Elizabeth Warren, Harvard law professor and consumer advocate, announced today that she’s running for the Democratic ticket in next year’s U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts.

As everyone starts digging into Warren’s past (hello, journalists), we thought we’d give you a hand. We’ve published three extensive interviews with Warren, starting in 2004.

Without further ado:

+ The Secret History of the Credit Card (2004): Warren discusses the problems with America’s massive consumer loan industry, and offers some interesting insights as to why she studies bankruptcy:

Bankruptcy is about financial death and financial rebirth. Bankruptcy is the great American story rewritten. We’re a nation of debtors.

She also tackles the credit card lobby, calling it “a great big multibillion-dollar industry talking to Congress, whispering in their ear.”

+ Can You Afford to Retire? (2006): Warren explains the history of pensions; why many Americans are losing theirs; and how bankruptcy laws play a major role in this:

What we are starting to create now is a notion in the United States that it’s old-fashioned and clearly unprofitable to make good on your promises to your employees and retirees.

+ Breaking the Bank (2009): Among the issues she expounds upon are the Troubled Asset Relief Program [TARP] bailout; her disappointment with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s first speech to the American people; and her plans for the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel, which she chaired. She says that more people should have seen the ’08 financial crisis coming:

If we don’t know that there’s a problem, then it’s because we’ve got our fingers stuffed in our ears, our eyes taped shut, and we’re singing, “La, la, la, la, la, I can’t hear you.”

Also check out these three video excerpts from her extended interview (scroll down, they’re towards the bottom).