Elizabeth Warren (1)Critiques

“If you do not persist in advocating for yourself in every area you need help in no one will help you. Study what you can whilst you can and understand what you need to know so that future generations won’t make the same mistakes. Persist in faith. Do not slack off and give up. Keep fighting. Excel. Exceed the expectations of those around you and you will walk with giants.”

I've read a lot of money blogs and articles, but not a lot of books on the topic. The few I have read made everything more complicated than it needed to be. This book breaks everything down into a simple 50/30/20 plan with practical advice on how to get your must-have expenses down to 50% of your income. There's no "stop drinking Starbucks" advice here, which is useless to those of us who don't splurge on coffees or eating out or movies or vacations.

pick up on page 16

I'll start with a note that this is a very positive 3 stars. The problem is, I rather dislike the genre of political policy memoir which mixes stump speech with substantive ideas with personal story. I also understand that it's the way the genre works. So 3 stars is as high as I'm likely to ever give a book of this type.

Warren earns that three stars because what I really want out of reading a book by a potential presidential nominee is the substance of their ideas, and Warren does pretty well on delivering substance in this book. It's intermixed with plenty of "That time I did awesome thing X" and "Here's my background." Still, there is real substance. This substance is a mix of history and policy recommendations. While I don't always agree with Warren's suggestions (although often I do), I appreciate that she understands that the government and the economy are complex, intertwined systems where solutions are not straight forward. There is no magic wand, and understanding that is, in my view, a key requirement of a good presidential candidate.

I'm voting for Warren.

She's right.

After reading [a:Dave Ramsey|44526|Dave Ramsey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1215615429p2/44526.jpg] it's hard to find new financial information (so don't judge based on star rating). But each one has their specialties and Warren does a good job debunking some myths about debt and explains more about bankruptcy and medical debt than the others I've read. Worth a read.

My financial planner is a bookworm. Which means every time I visit him I leave with a list of books to read. This time I left with the name "Elizabeth Warren." I must admit I winced a bit. Politics are not something that goes down easy in my life at the moment (R, D, or I, they're equally distasteful right now). But I went to the public library and found this book and was intrigued.

The research is thorough, the problems are real, and their approach to finding a solution isn't to go for the simplest, but the best.

This book should be read in tandem with [b:Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age|773464|Marriage and Caste in America Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age|Kay S. Hymowitz|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348633250s/773464.jpg|759515] and [b:Becoming Attached: First Relationships and How They Shape Our Capacity to Love|547830|Becoming Attached First Relationships and How They Shape Our Capacity to Love|Robert Karen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355921449s/547830.jpg|535088]. You may not see the connection at first, or you may think you see my angle, but the research is real.

I did disagree with one statement, though. The book postulates at one point that if you fix schools you'll fix families. I hypothesize that if you fix families you'll fix schools. I know, I'm weird.

My fellow book club members noted that it was quite different to read and to listen to Elizabeth Warren's post-2020 election summary. Reading her plans and logical and well-thought-out justifications for her advocacy of free childcare, taxing the very wealthiest, reduction of student debt, and improving health care seem logical rather than extreme. Hearing her read her words reminds us of the endless speeches that every candidate needs to make, trying not to come off as a soulless robot. You can share her hurt and frustration at the apparent refusal of Democratic voters to choose a woman for president, in light of Clinton and then Warren, Harris, and Klobuchar's losses. It's never the "right" woman. It's always her "scolding voice", her "tone", her pantsuits, her schoolmarmish demeanor, her jerk of a husband, etc etc etc - that seems to evoke bad childhood memories in both men and women. The interplay of policy and personal life works very well here. Warren is back, energetic and seemingly much younger than her 70 years, and she WILL persist in urging Joe Biden to keep making good choices and decisions to benefit the largest number of American citizens - whether they want it or not.

Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Persist draws upon her experiences as an educator, a Senator, and a Presidential candidate to explain how we can become a more just society that invests in the future and gives people the tools to better contribute for the betterment of all. Senator Warren walks through various elements of the modern Progressive platform, drawing upon her own lived experience to explain how she developed her stance on issues while detailing current events and what they reveal. An insightful read, Persist suffers from some of the drawbacks of memoirs intended to lay out a political platform rather than cap off the end of long career. Many of Senator Warren’s proposals, while still possible, would face greater or lesser support given events that transpired between the writing and publication of Persist, with the passage of time between then and readers eventually reading her book further dating it. That said, those interested in Senator Warren’s perspective will find Persist an invaluable resource while it will also aid future scholars looking to learn about how people contextualized the COVID-19 pandemic as it was unfolding.

In the interest of saving time (mine), I'll simply say that I basically agree with the May 8, 2014 comments of Goodreads reviewer Vicar Sayeedi on this book. He liked the book, recommends it to all, and praises Elizabeth Warren for being a positive force in our Country, for being an advocate for the average American, for protecting consumers, for being a creative thinker, and for becoming a politician who can work with others to get things accomplished.

With all the talk about Elizabeth Warren running for president, I decided to revisit The Two-Income Trap, a book that has had a very mixed reception amongst my circle of friends. (Disclosure, in case you think I am personally biased: I am a stay at home mother of two.)

This was published in 2003, which presents a problem for a review: Was the assessment correct at the time, and how well has it held up since? The short answer is mixed, for both of them. Essentially, the premise is this: the two income trap is faced by dual income middle class families because both incomes are committed to basic, fixed expenses, but they face nearly double the level of risk of job loss or other crisis, meaning the loss of one income is financially devastating. This is neutral as far as it goes, and can be demonstrated statistically.

The first problem is that they frames it as a competition. In Warren and Tyagi's view, dual income families have driven up the price of middle class life, principally housing in good school districts. Two income families are able to outspend single income families, thereby driving up the need for two incomes. The sense is that they view families as being pitted against each other in a war for scarce resources.

For a pair of working women in the 2000s, their views of women's roles are surprisingly simplistic. They principally ascribe women's income as providing an "economic edge"--a surplus to the man's income.

It was refreshing to see an acknowledgement of the economic value of unpaid labor provided by stay at home mothers, but even here, the details were shallow. The value of a stay at home mother is principally in the labor she provides. Its absence creates a void that must be filled--as acknowledged in the discussion of caretaking, though not her other domestic labor--but also historically has enabled men to work more, knowing their wife will pick up the slack. While Warren and Tyagi are aware of the racial disparities in working women, it gets only a glancing mention, which would not be acceptable today.

Worse, the other economic arguments of women's decisions to work are breezed over in ways that were a problem 16 years ago. They extol the potential of a stay at home mother's ability to act as a safety net in times of crisis, because her economic potential is still untapped. But you can't do that without considering how likely it is that she'll be able to bring in income. Similarly, the value of building a career is waved off because being a working woman doesn't protect you after divorce.

The proposed solutions for dealing with housing simply don't meet the smell test after the past 15 years. While middle class parents still chase desirable schools, it's also become clear that a major issue is the basic supply of housing and the overall inequality of American schooling. The problems here cannot be solved, as they suggest, by vouchers or a public school choice system.

The basic analysis that the trap is driven by spending on essentials, not luxuries, is sound and has been borne out since--even more so, given wage stagnation and rapid increases in the prices of housing, healthcare, and education. If the book were written today, more attention would be paid to the role of healthcare expenses and medical debt in driving families into bankruptcy.

There are some errors that really puzzled me--for example, stating that America "cannot afford huge subsidies for middle class housing," which ignores that we do just that through the creation of the 30 year fixed mortgage and the mortgage interest deduction on taxes. There's also a dismissal of government funded daycare because it "only helps two income families", ignoring the impact of price on quality. To their credit they later do briefly mention quality and that childcare is inherently valuable, but it's a bizarre thing to say. They encourage tax breaks for saving, but don't pay enough attention to the fact that middle class families don't have enough to save.

The work on bankruptcy and credit is, unsurprisingly, the strongest, and holds up the best, despite changes in laws and trends. This was Warren's core work, and she knows it well. She's clear about what drives personal bankruptcy (not irresponsibility) and the danger done by predatory lenders. The origins of the CFPB are clear here, though her proposed regulations may lean a little to the paternalistic and her proposal to restrict mortgage lending requires a lot more analysis for impact. It would be very interesting to redo a lot of this research post subprime crisis, with the continuing spiral in house prices in competitive markets that appears to be a supply issue, not just a credit issue.

Overall, the book is a really odd mix of liberal policy with surprisingly conservative analysis that doesn't go deep enough. Warren and Tyagi were clearly trying to write a popular book, not a scholarly one, but the thesis deserved a deeper treatment.

This book includes the major events in Warren's life and how those events affected her actions and her world view. Her writing is simple and straight-forward but there were times that I definitely felt like there were things she was not sharing. Not that she has to share those things but it just felt like a pencil outline of her life instead of a full vibrant painting. The policy work was pretty fascinating. She is very progressive and liberal and even if the reader is not (although I am so this is an assumption), it's hard not to just be enraged at big banks and politicians (often on both sides) that protect them. So often people are blamed for their poverty or their bankruptcy but the system is working against them and specifically and intentionally being sneaky about it. As a high school teacher even our education is failing people: I took calculus but never had a real discussion about financial literacy. If she does not win the Dem nomination, I sure hope she's put in charge of creating more policy to protect people financially.

Read by the author, the book is an accessible, partisan discussion of the ways in which a government geared toward supporting and promoting the progress of lower- and middle-income citizens has steadily moved toward one supporting big business, large banks, and the wealthy. The effect of policy is illustrated throughout by the stories of three average Americans who have lost momentum due to the government's change of direction. The book, as of spring 2017, was up-to-date, incorporating the events leading up to and immediately following Donald Trump's election.

Things I found illuminating: A discussion of the increasing role of lobbyists in the decision making of elected officials over the last 60 or 70 years; the pervasiveness of the reductive "trickle-down economics" theory of the economy; and a breakdown of the banks' role in the 2008 recession and the Wells Fargo scandal.

Things I found less rewarding: It's one-sided (not a surprise), and it hammers the same points over and over. I listened to it in the car and probably should have read it in hard copy; audiobooks are better when they are complex and rich (I listened Moby Dick and Great Expectations that way and felt enriched as a result). The author's distinctive dry, vehement teacher voice makes her a good speaker but an over-emphatic reader.

Tyagi, Amelia Warren (Author)

I ended up skimming after about 50-60 pages, I got the info I was looking for and I just need to apply it. It's written in a nice manner and tries not to lecture but I definitely felt the weight of living beyond my means and not saving. I hope I can apply what they suggest, I'm going to give it a try.

I love Elizabeth Warren and have for years. Ironically, my wife does not. While I don't necessarily agree with ALL of her positions, that can be said of any politician. Meanwhile, she's got some very good ideas, ideals, platforms, etc, and she's spunky as hell and has a big spine -- she can take on just about anyone.

Sadly, she'll never be elected and I think it would be disastrous if she ran. Sadly, America is about the only civilized first world country I can think of where we're so ass backwards and socially/culturally retarded, not to say misogynistic, that I don't know if a woman can EVER be elected in this country. Reagan Republicans seemed to love Thatcher and I've heard good things about Germany's female chancellor, among others. Thatcher was a strong leader and admired for that trait by many, although her career ended with controversy, somewhat like Reagan/Bush I. Nonetheless, just as a recent example, Hillary Clinton -- who is NOT my favorite politician or person -- ran against Trump as everyone knows, AND she WON the general election by at least TWO MILLION votes, which for the second time this century (Bush/Gore) proved what a total fraud the concept of popular vote is in this country and always has been, per the Founding Fathers, who created the Electoral College under the guise of the US Everyman being too damn stupid to know who to vote for, let alone even how to vote. So, these idiots who the political bosses put in place to "represent" their constituencies sometimes do and sometimes don't, in the most recent case, voting Donald Trump into office over Clinton despite the obvious proven fact that the majority of American voters didn't want Trump to win, and thus Hillary was the lesser of two evils.

Let me tell you, I've heard all of the arguments against Hillary. Some are legit, many are total crap and ESPECIALLY when compared to probably the most unprepared, literally dead stupid, crooked, greedy lying traitor of a politician in American history. He literally knew nothing about anything when he was elected, most alarming foreign policy (and the Constitution). He immediately mistrusted, hated and ignored our intelligence agencies and has waged war against actual intelligent (sometimes), experienced experts and politicians by replacing thousands of them either with deadbeat know nothing donor cronies who want to shred the government or leaves hundreds of positions unfilled. He has praised the worst dictators and human rights abusers in the world while offending and pushing away virtually all of our traditional allies. Meanwhile, Clinton spent 8 years in the White House and actually knows a thing or two about the Constitution, statehood, and as a former Senator and Secretary of State, about a million times more than Trump could ever learn about foreign policy or anything else, for that matter. And while there are unproven rumors that she is corrupt, anyone who believes she is actually worse than an alleged pedophile who sells access to the White House and every perk asked of him to any bidder, as the easiest lay in DC, degrading the position of President unlike anything anyone has ever anticipated. I cannot understand how anyone can support that cretin, especially the damn evangelicals and fundies who finally showed their true colors in voting for one of the most immoral men in history so they could gain power and demolish the evil "liberals" and progressives, thus turning this country into a conservative oppressive theocracy -- the exact opposite of what our Founding Fathers wanted, and most likely their savior, Jesus, too.

In any event, I went on too long on that analogy, but that's how I view Warren's chances in this country. She shows she's more intelligent than most of the (Republican) men in the room, she's got good ideas, plans on how to implement them -- if the Ted Cruz's of the world would stop being traitors to the country and actually do what our former politicians always did dating back to A Jackson, and make some damn compromises, and hence, legislation, rather than destroying the country with infantile shutdowns. She'll be hated and despised because she's a strong woman who has guts, and for the life of me, I'll never understand this, but American women -- particularly the fundies -- HATE strong Democratic women -- but they show their hypocracy when they go gaga and rally around the biggest loser airhead in US political history, that Sarah person. So Warren is a great leader, a great politician, an infinitely better choice than Trump or any of the loonies on the hard right who really are little but traitors to their country, as proven by supporting Trump and Putin over the US and our Constitution. I realize this review has been more about current US politics and the dysfunctional state we're in than this book itself, but if you haven't caught on by now, I think the author and her book are great, and certainly infinitely moreso than the moron in office or anyone like him. That said, nearly any non-loony with a brain would be better than what's in office in 2020. Recommended!!!

Lots of facts and quite a bit of history back up the Authors opinions. If you are skeptical ther are 69 pages of fine print on the sources of the facts presented.
In science, the "notes" would be called a bibliography. They are arranged by pages in which they are refereed to.

The only reason to give this book slightly less than 5 stars is the severely pessimistic outlook the author has acquired in a lifetime on human nature, mostly as greed and lack of a strong moral compass among so many people. This rubs off on the reader as a situation hardly worth trying to fix.½

This book was written in 2003. Elizabeth Warren didn't predict the subprime mortgage lending crisis and subsequent economic meltdown, but she was already fully aware that it was destroying the financial well-being of middle-class families. When the markets crashed in 2008, I -- like many people -- tried to make sense out of what happened, and assumed that we were all poor shmucks misled by a secretive cabal of bankers. But Warren was one of those people who were loudly gesturing toward something and everyone ignored it. Anyway, in summary: good book, great points, and Elizabeth Warren for president 2020.

I don't agree with Warren on all things. She doesn't have a single good thing to say about business, ever; the Washington Post put it well in an editorial I just saw today about her latest proposed bill about regulating financial equity: that, typically, she was "overreaching" and "overwrought."

For example, in the book she cites a commencement speech given by Michael Bloomberg where he criticizes the right for being too quick to demonize minorities, and the left for being too quick to demonize big business.

Her reaction is, well, overwrought. How dare he "equate" poor minorities with powerful big business? How come everyone else is not up in arms!

Because he didn't "equate" them; not surprisingly, Warren fails to see she is a perfect example of what he's talking about.

The book was big on elementary history lessons and rants. I wished there were more autobiography, and more of the informal case studies she starts off with. I really do like Senator Warren, respect her, and at the core of her message, agree with her - I would love to fix the system so that it works for the majority of Americans; that's what the system is "for." So, without overreaching or overreacting, let's get to it!

Couldn't put this book down. Thank god Elizabeth Warren is in the Senate. Unleash this woman and her intellect for the benefit of us all!

This book is an autobiographical account of the meteoric rise of a small town girl from Oklahoma to US Senator .

Senator Warren reveals the harsh reality of how the absolute decimation of American middle class through de-regulation of the finance sector bought about in the span of one generation “Reaganomics” has left families teetering on the brink of bankruptcy with multiple loans from housing to education .Predatory lending practices from banks through decades targeting vulnerable sections of the societies . The book goes on to tell her role in the forming the consumer watchdog program on such practices , handling of TARP bailout to the Dodd Frank regulations and how lobbying controls congress .

Off-course Elizabeth Warren has impeccable credentials Harvard Law professor , 30 years of finance regulatory work , US Senator Massachusetts but more importantly I found her genuinely concerned for the working class .

A great book. You can tell Elizabeth Warren is a wonderful person, warm, kind, thoughtful, positive and determined. This is a great expose on how we are moving toward oligarchy and away from democracy. She documents, with data, the rape of the middle class in favor of the 1%. I wish middle class Republicans would read books like this and realize how they are voting against their interests and those of their children and grandchildren. The book is a scary warning because it is based on fact and they are not warm, fuzzy facts. During the time of my working career we have been going backward as a country.

Well written description of two-income economics and the downward spiral of middle class families, particularly for women with children. Unlike many such tomes, Warren offers practical, direct actions which families can follow, as well as needed (though unlikely) congressional actions.½

Great read, if not a little jargon-y at times. Elizabeth Warren is a HERO.