July 2, 2008

Professor
Elizabeth Warren

Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren was recently featured on the NPR program “Fresh Air.” During the show, Warren spoke extensively about the intricacies of the credit system, including how lenders, employers, and even cell phone companies are using credit ratings to determine an individual’s purchasing power.

Host Terry Gross opened the program by describing how several egregious clerical errors in her husband’s credit report lowered his credit score extensively, and asked Warren how these errors can occur.

“It happens because there’s no real check on the system,” Warren said. “Estimates are that about 80 percent of credit reports contain at least one error, and one in four credit reports contain errors big enough to make a difference in your credit rating.”

An expert in bankruptcy law, Warren writes about bankruptcy and credit issues facing middle-class Americans. She has recently called for the creation of a financial products safety commission, which would regulate credit products in the same way the government regulates other consumer goods. Warren is the author of The Two Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers are Going Broke and was recently elected to the Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Listen to the two-part interview of Warren, "Your Credit Report: Know Its Perils, Keep it Clean" and "Elizabeth Warren on the Rising Cost of Credit Card Debt."