Newly-minted Senator Elizabeth Warren is sprinting out of the gate, bashing insurance conglomerate AIG for threatening to join a lawsuit against the federal government claiming the terms it received in the taxpayer bailout were unfair.
That's the same AIG that received $182 billion from taxpayers in that very same bailout, after nearly tanking the economy with its notorious credit default swaps.
Warren is livid, and in one of her first acts as senator, she's calling for AIG's special tax breaks to be rescinded.
Yes, AIG also gets special tax breaks.
The insurance giant should look out for Warren. Though she's a freshman senator, she's been appointed to the powerful Senate Banking Committee, and she's built her reputation as a watchdog for the little taxpayers who don't have the same clout in the market.
It was at Warren's insistence that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was established, in a bid to regulate those very same predatory financial products AIG and big banks peddled.
She was a shoo-in to head the agency until the financial lobby convinced Republicans to tank her nomination.
So instead, she ran for the Senate, and won. And now they have to contend with her in a position that often ends up being a lifetime appointment.
Warren could get some assistance soon. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is stepping down soon, and some of his most vocal opposition has been from those who think he's been too cozy with the banks.
The person President Obama is most likely to replace Geithner with is Jack Lew, the current White House Chief of Staff.
Lew also has tied to CitiGroup and hedge funds, but he was instrumental in creating AmeriCorps in the Clinton years.
However, many of the financial issues that gathered steam for years before the financial collapse started during the Clinton years, particularly after the repeal of Glass-Steagall, which kept bank deposits and their investments separate.
Whatever AIG's plans or policies, its latest move is certainly tone-deaf, and Warren will have an easy time capitalizing on it -- perhaps even making an example of the company in a new test of her political power.
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