Weekend Reading: Elizabeth Warren Has a Memoir

There’s an irritating dinner-party-conversation-starter topic about how, because of physics and aerodynamics, bumblebees shouldn’t be able to fly. It’s a ridiculous argument because: (a) bumblebees have been flying just fine since there were bees to bumble; and (b) it’s not like if you told a bumblebee, “Hey, you, with the bumbles: did you know you aerodynamically aren’t supposed to be able to fly?” that that bee would then drop to the ground and think about its life and its choices.

Such it is with the CFPB. A common talking point, especially among those in the collection industry, is that: boy, that agency sure should not exist. And much time is spent thinking about why it shouldn’t exist and how maybe, if everyone wishes REALLY hard, and then maybe also gives enough money to the right causes, and then also if everyone pretends that the C in the CFPB didn’t stand for “Consumer” — if we did all that then maybe the agency would go away.

But it’s not going to go away.

And this is why maybe you might spend some time this weekend with Elizabeth Warren’s memoir.

There’s some fodder in it for the anti-CFPBers out there:

The first, according to her new memoir, was in the Oval Office. Obama told her that he dared not appoint her to head the consumer agency she created, because she made Senate Republicans and Wall Street bankers “very nervous.”

A few weeks later, meeting outside for a chat that became as uncomfortable as the hot weather, Obama asked Warren to do the setup work for the consumer protection agency that she would not lead. When she resisted, Obama got testy.

“You’re jamming me, Elizabeth,” Obama said.

“He urged me not to overplay my hand,’’ she writes. “Got it.’’

And while Warren has stated repeatedly that she’s not running for the presidency in 2016 — that’s essentially a non-announcement announcement that she is. Get ahead of the media’s talking points by having read the main book everyone else will be talking about so you can feel both informed and smug.