In 2004, journalist Bill Moyers interviewed Elizabeth Warren about the financial struggles of the middle class, especially the growing burden of household debt: Between 1990 and 2004, household debt doubled, from 4 trillion to 8 trillion dollars.

At the time of Moyers’ interview, Warren was not yet a leader of the Progressive movement, not yet a U.S. Senator, and not yet a key player in the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren was still teaching at Harvard Law School, and had just published a book called The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents are Going Broke.



Warren is her usual articulate and passionate self on Moyers’ show. But the key part of the interview (for me, anyway) was when Warren describes two encounters with Hillary Clinton. The first came in the late 1990s, when Clinton was still the First Lady. The second came a few years later, soon after Hillary had been elected to the U.S. Senate.

The contrast between these two incarnations of Hillary — well, I think you’ll find it eye-opening, and probably a little disturbing, too.