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

[Ian Livingston]

Villainy? In capitalism? Never!

On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 6:05 PM, Michael Bailey
<michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey, thanks for that further insight.  Can't help but think though
> that there was a certain amount of villainy involved somewhere.
>
> On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 1:52 PM, Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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
>>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "I have left my book,
> I have left my room,
> For I heard your voice
> singing through the gloom" - James Joyce
>



-- 
"liber enim librum aperit."