The hopes many of us had for Elizabeth Warren began to be realized at that hearing.  The questions that she asked were simple and to the point.  The focus she brought in her five allotted minutes put a spotlight on the issue that needed to be brought to light.  I hope those who were diverted from looking at her clearly by the atrocious and petty campaign against her last year will eventually see that her interests are as Conservative as they are Liberal.  I think a Good Conservative would want good banking institutions that perform their role in accumulating capital, protecting savings, investing soundly and behaving prudently.  A Good Conservative wants an economy that is neither too hot nor too cold; that ensures that the productive forces in our country continue to be productive in an honest and efficient manner.  There ARE intersections where Good Conservatives and Good Liberals can meet…happily.

I am not a fan of labels, "liberal", "conservative" and find the media is to quick to throw them at people.  I get it folks fall on the left and the right and Warren is considered a liberal but sometimes an article can be important and the use of labels helps no one at all.  This is one of those instances where at the beginning the term "liberal" in inserted and three fourths of the readership shut down their brains.  Those on the right, "don't want to hear it", those on the left, are agreeing before they read the next word in the column.

On the banking issue Warren does indeed raise important issues and knows her subject matter.  For all the public crying regarding the economy one senses very little movement within the public to bring to an end the era of big banks.  It's all just too boring and technical.  However, the fact is it is the movement towards "big" that has led to much of America's economic problems.  If Adam Smith were alive today and looked at the banking industry, the oil industry and any number of not labeled but in fact, "monopolies" in this country he would be irate.

The govt. and the people have accepted a line of "go big and increase efficiency and lower prices", time and time again only to find the opposite is true.  Can Warren get the necessary support from real "conservatives", real "liberals" to break up the "big" banks?  This won't be a fight over labels but a fight over money and power and it will be interesting to see if the public shows enough interest to back the necessary legislation or does it simply fall down into phony labels.

I vote as usual, phony labels.

She is an intellectual giant compared to Scott Brown. We have someone there who can actually stand up for people in a firm articulate manner without wavering about how her constituents are going to vote. I can see her on the Supreme Court someday...

I am so glad that I voted for Elizabeth Warren! She did an outstanding job representing a Senator who actually cares about what big banks are doing to consumers overall. Maybe now that enlightening testimony is being heard by the masses, our government will take more effective steps in reigning in these big bank thieves instead of bailing 'em out all the time at our expense! Go Elizabeth!

Elizabeth Warren had the financial sector a little worried when she first made headlines asking why banks charge fees for phone and online payments on loans already laced with interest rates benefiting the lender. Some Washington insiders tried to cut her off at the pass, but she still came back to run against Scott Brown, the "Pocket Twitter!" Good luck, Sen. Warren!

She is off to a agreat start. Welcomed breath of fresh air. This financial scandal taints both parties and affects us all. no one in jail? what about corzine? the guys who ran fannie and freddie? goldman sachs? these are all too big to exist

Nice to have an intelligent Senator after Scottie and his pea sized brain.

That's exactly what we elected you for. Thank you, Sen. Warren.

I voted for Elizabeth Warren and I am rooting for her, but I am afraid that it would take someone with the charisma, backing and following of Jesus Christ, and the wisdom of His Father to fix the "banking" system. Aside from the fact that our goverment's main mission is in the service of monied interests, our financial system has become nearly divorced from the actual market place, i.e., one in which rewards are reaped by those that add actual value to the economy. Too much of today's "markets" are really just legalized gambling operations that scheme ways to pull value out of the economy without having to contribute any in return. They are making money by moving money around. With an economic system that requires growth to continue to work, there is only so much value added during any given period of time, and more and more of that value is getting stolen by fewer and fewer people, leaving less and less for the rest. Even if there were meaningful changes to the banking system, (simple re-enactment of something like Glass-Steagall would probably do it) it won't fix the overall dynamic that ,leads to an untenable gap between the have and have nots.

The unspoken answer to injun Warren's imperiuous question as to why they Feds dont take the banks to trail is simple and obvious - because the Fed lawyers have plenty of cause to expect thety would lose any case in court.

The Feds have been amking a lot of cases out of very thin gurel, they sound good in the papers, but the actually criminal acts are unclear or fictional.  God forbid, they ever need to stand in front of 12 Americans and try tlo prove their hyped accusations.

Sadly the banks find it easier to settle and pay a bundle than to go through years of expensive litigation and adverse publicity forcing the feds to make a case.

Warren should be carefual about what she asks for...

This is precisely why the well-informed, welll-educated people of Massachusetts chose her over Brown!

I voted for her too, but let's get real. A couple of questions asked, but nothing meaningful done. 

And the Globe wonders why it is being sold at a Fire Sale!! The minute Liz came on the scene Morrissey Blvd Swooned. The days of the Old Boston Gobe, who had a left lean but a journalistic soul, are long gone. Sad.

Joshua_the bottom line is Elizabeth Warren is repeating the PBS Frontline series on the inside story of the financial crisis. The series highlighted the federal government's failure to invesitgate financial institutions and determine culpability or hold CEO accountability to the barest standard of business ethics. PBS first ran the television series in Spring 2012 and have since repeated it.

The bottom line is, the middle class were screwed when their taxes was used as bail-out money to finance Wall Street executives with bigger salaries and bonuses. This is not rocket science staff and perhaps more Americans should be watching PBS, rather than American Idol or Dancing with the Stars!

She was a surprisingly effective senator.  "Surprisingly?"   Why always a subtle put down by columnists everywhere when writing about good people or politicians?  Oh, I get it.  Joshua, after dozens of previous columns of yours that I've read, this one, with one noticible sentence heretofore mentioned, is surprisingly effective.  

"POH"  Then you and I agree.  The feds should have taken them to court.  In doing so we would know whether the laws that are currently on the book are strong enough or not strong enough.  That is the point of the article. That is Ms. Warren's point.  The feds and the regulators are too much in bed with the bankers.  I don't think this is a "liberal" or a "conservative" issue it is simply can a person work in a situation or an institution in which he is too big to prosecute.  What Ms. Warren is saying and I am agreeing and you seem to agree is that yes indeed they can.

As somebody pointed out, the evil forces of greed and their stooges in Congress are already regretting that they stood against her appointment to head the regulatory agency.  As the agency head, they could have tied her hands as they have done to other regulatory agencies; as a Senator, they are unable to prevent her from doing her job and going after the 1%.  Greed sometmes has a stupifying effect.

Elizabeth Warren today showed us what kind of a senator she will be. By proclaiming that allowing the sequestor to occur "Is Dumb" as she told the Globe...Elizabeth Warren means: A. Barack Obama is DUMB since he was the one who demanded it in 2011..and B. Elizabeth Warren herself is DUMB when the expected job cuts do not occur: and C..Both she and the Globe think that the readers are DUMB for believing anything she says here....Also she forgot to say that Deval's proposed tax increase will HAMMER the Middle Class.