I've been an observer of Elizabeth Warren for several years now. She was one of the few people who warned about the consequences for middle class families of a housing/credit bubble burst. She saw the danger to come when people could no longer afford to refinance or charge their way out of trouble.

Today was the first time I met her face to face. As we talked before the interview began, I remarked that she had predicted a lot of the problems we now find ourselves in. "I wish I had been wrong," was her reply. Many people who raised the red flag about the risky and/or abusive practices of the financial industry were put down as naysayers, "academics who don't get it," or otherwise uninformed/unenlightened individuals. Warren also said "I told you so" just isn't very satisfying. "Unless it's about the paint color in the hall, that's different."

Too many people have been hurt in this economic crisis. And the process of cleaning up the mess has meant that institutions people want to punish are needed to fix the economy, so they've been bailed out or rewarded. Certainly not a satisfying outcome either.

Warren now heads the Congressional panel overseeing the TARP. They issued a report today warning that the "troubled assets" the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was supposed to address are still there. The full report can be found at cop.senate.gov. Our extended conversation can be seen here.
(You'll need Flash installed to watch.)