The news on Elizabeth Warren is interesting.

She heads Congress' oversight panel monitoring the $700 billion bailout money. Cong. Barney Frank, D-Mass., yesterday said that he'd like to see her become the first head of the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Well, it's her idea. Two years ago, when I first discovered her exploding toaster analogy about consumer financial products, I wrote about it. Then I circulated her article -- suggesting the government create a financial products safety commission similar to the Consumer Product Safety Commission -- to some folks in the South Florida financial community. As I remember, the consensus was, it'd never work or Congress would never go for it. I'm betting they're still wrong.

The salient part of that column, from June 17, 2007:

Let's give the last word to Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren and her exploding toaster argument.
From a recent blog post, she noted that if you bought a toaster, you could reasonably assume it would not explode. That's because the Underwriters Laboratories label showed it had been tested for safety, the Consumer Product Safety Commission would issue a recall if toasters began to blow up, and there are always lawyers to file lawsuits if that happened.
But none of those forms of protection are in place for credit cards (or other financial products), she noted. No testing, no watchdogs that can pull bad products off the market, very little ability for consumers to sue. (Credit cards increasingly are requiring cardholders to agree to arbitration for resolving a dispute.)
Exploding credit cards? It certainly can feel that way when your rate suddenly approaches 30 percent or you find out they charged you extra because you paid by phone.
The deal you thought you had often does blow up.