Op-eds
U.S. News Op-Ed: The Big Benefits of Postal Service Banking
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
More than a quarter of all American households - about 68 million people - rely at least in part on nonbank financial services like check cashing or payday lending. These unbanked and underbanked households pay more - a lot more - for the kinds of basic financial services the rest of us take for granted. In 2012, the average income for these families was about $25,500, and they spent an average of $2,412 just on interest and fees for nonbank financial services. That was just under 10 percent … Continue Reading
June 02, 2014
Salem News Op-Ed: Student debt is a national emergency
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
Total student loan debt across the country now stands at $1.2 trillion - and each year, students are taking on more and more and more debt. From 2004 to 2012, the average student loan balance increased by 70 percent. Millions of young people are struggling to keep up with their student loan payments. This is an emergency. Student loan debt is crushing our young people and weighing down our economy. Federal agencies like the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department and the Consumer Financial … Continue Reading
May 01, 2014
CNN Op-Ed: What happened to the middle class?
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
A great crack in America's middle class came to light recently: While our country continues to lead the world as the richest nation, our middle class, once the most affluent in the world, has fallen behind. According to an analysis by The New York Times, Canada's middle class is now the wealthiest, and working families in many countries have seen their incomes rise much faster than those in the United States. The hollowing out of America's middle class has been years in the making, but it … Continue Reading
April 29, 2014
Politico Op-Ed: The Citigroup Clique
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
Today, I cast my vote on the Senate Banking Committee for Stanley Fischer to serve in the No. 2 position at the U.S. Federal Reserve. I asked Fischer tough questions - in person, at his nomination hearing, and in writing - and I have been impressed with the depth of his knowledge and experience. But I cast my vote reluctantly because of my growing frustration over the concentration of people with ties to the megabank Citigroup in senior government positions. In recent years, Wall Street … Continue Reading
April 17, 2014
Credit.com Op-Ed: Why Equal Pay Is Worth Fighting For
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
I honestly can't believe that we're still arguing over equal pay in 2014. When I started teaching elementary school after college, the public school district didn't hide the fact that it had two pay scales: one for men and one for women. Women have made incredible strides since then. But 40 years later, we're still debating equal pay for equal work. Women today still earn only 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, and they're taking a hit in nearly every occupation. Bloomberg analyzed … Continue Reading
April 01, 2014
Huffington Post Blog: Wall Street Should Disclose Its Think Tank Contributions
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
In December, I wrote to the heads of six of the country's biggest financial institutions with a simple request: that they voluntarily disclose the financial contributions their companies make to think tanks. This disclosure would help make sure shareholders, policymakers, and the public are aware of efforts by large Wall Street banks to indirectly influence lawmakers and regulators by supporting think tanks' research. Unfortunately, none of the six institutions -- JPMorgan Chase, Bank of … Continue Reading
March 28, 2014
Boston Globe Op-Ed: Help for homeowners
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
Homeowners across Massachusetts received some good news last week: President Barack Obama signed into law the bipartisan Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, which will help protect millions of families here in the Commonwealth and across the country from huge increases in flood insurance rates. A few years ago, Congress changed the national flood program to move toward a more market-based system that more accurately reflects the true costs and risks of flood damage. This was a … Continue Reading
March 25, 2014
Credit.com Op-Ed: 17 Million Reasons to Raise the Minimum Wage
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
I have 17 million reasons for wanting to increase the minimum wage. Yes, 17 million-the number of children whose lives would be a little more secure if their moms and dads earned at least $10.10 an hour. When I was in junior high, my daddy had a heart attack. He was home for a while, the medical bills piled up, and we lost our family station wagon. So my mother did what she had to do: She went to work answering the phones at Sears. The job paid only minimum wage, but it was enough to make sure … Continue Reading
February 26, 2014
Bay State Banner Op-Ed: Creating a level playing field
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
This is a special moment in history. In August, we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared his dream of equality and called for action. Later this year, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of the enduring legacies of the March on Washington. The Civil Rights Act was a landmark moment in the ongoing fight for equality, enshrining in law the principle that ensure no one … Continue Reading
February 05, 2014
Huffington Post Blog: Senate Women Say: Raise The Minimum Wage!
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
Co-authored by:Senator Mazie HironoSenator Tammy Baldwin Last week, the Democratic women senators stood together at an amazing event where we delivered a very important message: No American woman should ever work a full-time job and still raise her children in poverty. Yet at a time when 400 American families have more wealth than 150 million, an American single mom earning minimum wage at a full-time job takes home just $15,000 a year to support her family -- below the poverty line. It's … Continue Reading
February 01, 2014
Huffington Post Blog: Coming to a Post Office Near You: Loans You Can Trust?
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
The poor pay more. According to a report put out this week by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Postal Service, about 68 million Americans -- more than a quarter of all households -- have no checking or savings account and are underserved by the banking system. Collectively, these households spent about $89 billion in 2012 on interest and fees for non-bank financial services like payday loans and check cashing, which works out to an average of $2,412 per household. That … Continue Reading
February 01, 2014
Patriot Ledger Op-Ed: Flood insurance shouldn't soak homeowners
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
Families purchase flood insurance so they don't lose their homes in a bad storm. But now, because of changes to FEMA's flood maps and unexpected insurance rate hikes, many families fear that the price of flood insurance could be just as devastating as any storm. Congress changed the national flood program to move toward a more market-based system that more accurately reflects the true costs and risks of flood damage. This was a well-intentioned law, but unfortunately homeowners were … Continue Reading
December 16, 2013
Salem News Op-Ed: Social Security is under attack
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
A generation ago, middle-class families were able to put away enough money during their working years to make it through their later years with dignity. On average, they saved about 11 percent of their take-home pay while working. Many paid off their homes, got rid of all their debts and retired with strong pensions from their employers. And where pensions, savings and investments fell short, they could rely on Social Security to make up the difference. That was the story a generation ago, … Continue Reading
December 14, 2013
Lowell Sun Op-Ed: Protect, expand Social Security
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
For a generation now, working families have been squeezed by stagnant wages and rising costs for housing, health care, and college. Even as families have cut back on expenses for things like food, clothing, furniture, and appliances, it hasn't always been enough; many have been forced to take on more and more debt just to pay for necessities. One major consequence of these increasing pressures on working people is that the dream of a secure retirement is slowly slipping away. Families haven't … Continue Reading
November 02, 2013
Patriot Ledger Op-Ed: Sending money transfers abroad just got easier
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
For anyone in the Commonwealth with family and friends in other countries, sending money abroad often is done by money transfers. According to Boston's Independent Newspaper Group, Massachusetts families sent more than $2 billion using international remittances in 2012. Many of these transfers are sent to friends and relatives who rely on this financial help to make ends meet and support their loved ones. Although money transfers are used by millions of people across the country, until this … Continue Reading
October 12, 2013
Daily Hampshire Gazette Op-Ed: Reasonable compromise thwarted by GOP shutdown of government
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In western Massachusetts and across the Commonwealth, families are feeling the effects of the unnecessary and avoidable government shutdown. The shutdown has sent thousands of federal employees in Massachusetts home without paychecks and has disrupted access to critical services, piling onto the damage already caused by the idiotic sequester. When I visited Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield in August, I heard about how federal across-the-board spending cuts are … Continue Reading
October 11, 2013
Cape Cod Times Op-Ed: Shutdown is Bad for Massachusetts
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
The federal government has been shut down for more than a week now, and we've been seeing the consequences here in Massachusetts. This shutdown is an unnecessary, self-inflicted wound that's hurting families, and it comes while we are still dealing with the effects of the senseless sequester - drastic, across-the-board spending cuts that have crippled Meals On Wheels, Head Start and investments in medical research. The government shutdown is throwing a major wrench into a fragile economic … Continue Reading
September 18, 2013
Boston Globe Op-Ed: Scaling back ‘too big’
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
FIVE YEARS have passed since the financial crisis, but we all remember its darkest days. Credit dried up. The stock market cratered. There were legitimate fears that the dominos of our financial system would never stop falling. The crash happened quickly and dramatically, and it caught our nation and apparently even our regulators by surprise. But the causes of the crisis were years in the making, and the warning signs were everywhere. On many of these fronts, we've made real progress. The … Continue Reading
September 08, 2013
Springfield Republican Op-Ed: Sequester drags American economy down
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
Earlier this year, automatic, across-the board spending cuts went into effect across the country. As our economy slowly recovers from high unemployment and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, middle class families are struggling to keep their heads above water. For these families, the effect of these cuts is like being asked to swim with rocks tied around their ankles. People are working as hard as they can, but they just keep getting dragged down. These cuts, known as … Continue Reading
September 01, 2013
MetroWest Daily News Op-Ed: Stop the heartless, senseless sequester
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
Across-the-board federal spending cuts are dragging down our economy in MetroWest and across Massachusetts. The sequester threatens countless vital investments in our future - from critical medical research to Head Start for our kids. We've worked hard to recover from the Great Recession, but the sequester is making it harder than it should be for families to get back on their feet. Here in Framingham, we are seeing firsthand how damaging and senseless the sequester is to Massachusetts. The … Continue Reading
