Elizabeth Warren

Me, I was waiting tables of 13 and married at 19. I graduated from public schools, and taught elementary school.

Homeowners refinance their loans when interest rates go down. Businesses refinance their loans.

Families rely on financial services more than ever, but those who need them most - who struggle to make ends meet - too often must contend with sky-high interest rates and tricks and traps buried in the fine print of their loan products.

If there had been a Financial Product Safety Commission in place 10 years ago, the current financial crisis would have been averted.

Some of these biggest financial institutions are out there trading in commodities. They're buying oil tankers. This is not a financial system that has calmed down and is there to serve the American people.

Bankruptcy is about financial death and financial rebirth. Bankruptcy is the great American story rewritten. We're a nation of debtors.

People who graduate are more resilient financially, and they weather economic downturns better than people who don't graduate. And, throughout their lives, people who graduate are more likely to be economically secure, more likely to be healthy, and more likely to live longer. Face it: A college degree puts a lot in your corner.

How do you think we build a future? I think we build it by investing in our kids and investing in education.

If President Barack Obama had not been in the White House, we would not have the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today.

Rising student-loan debt is an economic emergency.

Even families with health insurance are quite vulnerable to a severe economic reversal if someone gets sick.

The women who file for bankruptcy played by all the rules, but they are still in economic freefall.