Larry Summers, Obama chief economic advisor 1999: "I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage countries is impeccable and we should face up to that . . . I've always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are also vastly under-polluted."

In 1998, in blocking attempts to regulate the derivatives market:
"The parties to these kinds of contracts are largely sophisticated financial institutions that would appear to be eminently capable of protecting themselves from fraud and counter party insolvencies and most of which are already subject to basic safety and soundness regulation under existing banking and securities laws."

As Treasury Secretary in 1999 Summers played a decisive role in pushing through the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act of 1933 that was instituted to guard against just the kind of banking abuses taxpayers now are having to bail out. Not only Glass-Steagall repeal. In 2000 Summers backed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act that incredibly mandated that financial derivatives, including in energy, could be traded between financial institutions completely without government oversight

Summers hailed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which lifted more than six decades of restrictions against banks offering commercial banking, insurance, and investment services (by repealing key provisions in the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act): "Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century" "This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy."

But Sawzaw, we had that all blamed on McCain and Phil Gramm. Are you trying to tell us that an Obama appointee is involved the meltdown?

In 2000 in praise of the derivatives market: "The over-the-counter derivatives market is an important component of the American capital markets and a powerful symbol of the kind of innovation and technology that has made the American financial system as strong as it is today."

During the California energy crisis of 2000, then-Treasury Secretary Summers teamed with Alan Greenspan and Enron executive Kenneth (Enron) Lay to lecture California Governor Gray Davis on the causes of the crisis, explaining that the problem was excessive government regulation.


Yer doin a heckuva job there Larry.