Elizabeth Warren (via Harvard)

A hot topic in liberal circles these days is whether President Obama will appoint Elizabeth Warren, the crusading Harvard Law bankruptcy expert, to be the first head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created in the financial reform law signed last month.

The independent agency – which has its roots in an article Warren herself wrote back in 2007 – will be consumers’ watchdog when it comes to financial products like mortgages and credit cards. Here’s a description of it from The Wall Street Journal:

Once under way, the agency is likely to be the most visible manifestation to consumers from the extensive financial-regulatory legislation expected to clear Congress next week. It will write rules on checking accounts, credit cards and mortgages. It will field complaints from the public about lending practices. It will enforce its rules across the economy, from big banks to credit counselors—though not auto dealers, which won’t fall under the agency’s supervision, after much lobbying.

Warren’s potential nomination has become a cause célèbre in recent weeks among progressives disappointed in the president’s record on everything from the public option to Afghanistan.

This afternoon I spoke with Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who helped craft the financial reform law from his perch on the Senate Banking Committee, and here’s what he had to say about Warren and the other names floated:

I think she’s terrific. I think she’s been very, very good with these issues. It’s up to the president. The names that I’ve heard – Gene Kimmelman, Warren and Michael Barr – are all first-rate. I know Michael and Elizabeth very well – I don’t know Kimmelman [but he's heard good things]. … Any one of those could be a very effective head of the CFPB.