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

[Robert Mahnke]

I don't think there was any "effort to destroy Born's career," let
alone one led by Summers.  There was a disagreement over whether it
was a good idea to regulate derivatives.  She thought yes; Alan
Greenspan, Summers, Robert Rubin, Phil Gramm, and others thought no.
She was right and they were wrong.  (That said, you might question
whether regulation by the CFTC would have been any better than no
regulation at all, because it had a pretty strong free-market
orientation, at least until Obama took office.)  So this was not a
moment Summers should be proud of, but whoever wrote what's below is
hyperbolizing to trash him.

Here's a sympathetic Washington Post profile of Born from last year
that has a more complete account of what happened:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/25/AR2009052502108.html


On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 4:30 AM, Michael Bailey
<michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>