(np) so apparently Summers is no great loss to the Obama administration

[Michael Bailey]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/so_long_summers_20100921

Summers helped make law when he worked for Bill Clinton. He led the
effort to destroy the career of Brooksley Born, the Clinton-appointed
head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission who had the
prescience to sound the alarm in the face of a dangerously spiraling
market in suspect mortgage packages. Her sensible suggestion in a
“concept release” for a study of the risks in those newfangled
financial gimmicks horrified Summers, who told a Senate committee:

“In our view, the Release has cast the shadow of regulatory
uncertainty over an otherwise thriving market—raising risk for the
stability and competitiveness of American derivatives trading. We
believe it is quite important the doubts be eliminated.”

They were eliminated when, at Summers’ instigation, Clinton signed off
on the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which summarily banned any
regulation of those derivatives under any existing law or by any
agency.

and we all know how well that worked...





-- 
"I have left my book,
I have left my room,
For I heard your voice
singing through the gloom" - James Joyce