Las Sheriffas

Time Magazine's cover story this week is ahead of the curve for a change. Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission, Mary Schapiro who chairs the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Elizabeth Warren, overseer of the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, share the limelight this week and for good reason. All three are committed to substantive reforms in the financial system, and they have begun working together to achieve their common goal. From the article by Michael Scherer:

Unlike many of the men they oversee, the new sheriffs of Wall Street never aspired to eight-figure compensation packages or corporate suites. Bair, Schapiro and Warren all made their careers far from Manhattan, taking on new jobs during pregnancies and outhustling the men around them. But it is their willingness to break ranks and challenge the status quo that makes these increasingly powerful women different from their predecessors.

Scherer's piece concludes: "There are lots more women at the table now," Schapiro says. And the women have learned how to work together better. Around Washington, women call this "amplification," the extra juice that comes when powerful figures join forces to speak up against entrenched interests. As chairs of their commissions, both Bair and Schapiro have independently consulted with Warren in recent months for advice on consumer rights. They have largely spoken with a united voice on financial reform, and when they gathered in late April for a TIME photo shoot, they promptly huddled to strategize on arguments to head off bank lobbyists' efforts against the new derivatives regulation moving through the Senate. The measure, believed to be dead a few months ago, now looks likely to pass by the end of the month. The only question is whether it will have the teeth to prevent a repeat of the crisis of 2008. "Do you know how many little changes could be made in that statute to just cut the legs out from underneath it?" Warren asks.

Unfortunately, from harsh experience, we do know. But now we're better off, having seen some of the enemy's most devious tricks, and with a team in place that we have reason to hope will be able to nail down some real reform for a change.