Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., faces plenty of criticism from conservatives. But
Fiscal Times columnist Liz Peek comes to her complaints against Warren from a unique angle.
"The Massachusetts senator is a progressive firebrand whose family issues could cause serious problems for the country," Peek writes. "She is dynamic, she has fire in her belly and she hates — absolutely hates — banks."
And what does Warren have against banks? "It's personal, bankers were mean to her Daddy," Peek argues.
"When Elizabeth Warren was 12 years old, a bank repossessed one of the family's two cars." But that's not it, Peek adds.
"Because the bank threatened to take the Warren's home, too, and because her father was out of work, her mother needed to bring in some desperately needed money. She weepily struggled into a too-tight black dress, hobbled to Sears, Roebuck on uncomfortable high heels, and got her first-ever job. It was, as Warren recounts in her memoir, the day she grew up."
Therefore, she's had a "lifetime conviction that banks (and, more broadly, businesses) are out to trick and cheat average hard-working families."
"Warren, like President Obama, believes the deck is stacked against the middle class. She belittles the contributions of business owners, and tells them 'part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along,'" Peek notes.
Peek's piece is certainly entertaining — and juicy red meat for Warren haters. But delving into family history to explain a politician's policy views is a pretty uncertain business.
On the subject of banks, while bank stocks may have underperformed the overall stock market over the past year, they represent an attractive investment now, says ace bank analyst Dick Bove of Rafferty Capital Markets.
The KBW Bank (stock) index has generated a return of just 6.3 percent for the last year, compared with 12.7 percent for the S&P 500.
But the lagging performance of bank stocks doesn't reflect any fundamental problems with the banks' business, Bove argues. Book values, dividends and earnings are rising, except for those banks with litigation expenses
And, "if you look at 2015, all three of these things are going to be up again," he tells
CNBC. "The question is when will investors get comfortable enough with the banking industry to start buying stocks again, because from a fundamental standpoint these stocks are unbelievably cheap."