Larry Summers: Wall Street's Man

Larry Summers: Wall Street's Man

by Stephen Lendman

When his Fed chairmanship term ends in January, Bernanke's expected to step down. Wall Street wants Summers replacing him. It usually gets what it wants. More on that below.

Money power runs America. The Federal Reserve isn't federal. It's privately owned and controlled. Wall Street decides who runs it.

Bankers choose chairmen and governors. It's always been this way. It's more than ever so now. Presidents have no say. They announce pre-selected choices. They pretend otherwise.

America's founders knew the dangers. Letting bankers control money assures trouble.

James Madison called them "Money Changers," saying:

"History records that the Money Changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance."

Thomas Jefferson said:

"I sincerely believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies."

"Already they have raised up a money aristocracy that has set the government at defiance."

"The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs."

According to Lincoln:

"The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity."

"It is more despotic than a monarch, more insolent than autocracy and more selfish than a bureaucracy."

"It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes."

"I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at the rear is my greatest foe."

Andrew Jackson called the Bank of the United States (the Fed's equivalent then) a "hydra-headed monster." He called bankers "a den of vipers and thieves."

They were tame compared to now. Privatized money power is humanity's greatest threat. Bankers control it for personal gain. They use it to accumulate more. Political complicity permits it.

Alan Greenspan wrecked the economy. William Greider called him "among the most duplicitous figures to serve in modern American government."

He used "his exalted status as economic wizard (to) regularly corrupt the political dialogue by sowing outrageously false impressions among gullible members of Congress and adoring financial reporters."

When he stepped down, he left a colossal mess. Bernanke accelerated a failed process. He's run amuck. He's responsible for the most reckless money printing madness in history.

It continues. He's debasing the dollar irresponsibly. A slow-motion train wreck looms. Nothing's being done to prevent it. Ordinary people will be harmed most.

Bail-ins will confiscate their savings. Bankers will benefit most. They control the Fed. Except for coins, they create money, credit and debt.

In 1927, Bank of England president Josiah Stamp said:

"The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented."

"Banking was conceived in inequity and born in sin." (They) own the earth."

"Take it away from them but leave them the power to create money, and, with a flick of a pen, they will create enough money to buy it back again."  

"Take this great power away from them and all great fortunes like mine will disappear, for then this would be a better and happier world to live in."

"But, if you want to continue to be the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let bankers continue to create money and control credit."

Privatized money facilitates financial war on humanity. It assures poverty, unemployment, inflation, out-of-control debt, human misery and economic slavery.

Today's system far exceeds the worst of past eras. Among names floated for next Fed chairman, Summers is the worst possible choice. He's ideologically over-the-top.

He's a walking conflict of interest. He sold out America. He did so for personal gain. He's in bed with Wall Street. His rap sheet exposes him.

As Clinton's Treasury Secretary, he pushed banking deregulation to the extreme. He ignored industry fraud.

He supported industry consolidation. He promoted anything goes. He spearheaded Glass-Steagall repeal.

He successfully thwarted Clinton's Commodity Futures Trading Commission head Brooksley Born's efforts to regulate financial derivatives.

He campaigned for passing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. It deregulated derivatives trading. It legitimized swap agreements and other hybrid instruments.

It's one of the root causes of today's financial disaster. It ended derivatives and leveraging regulatory oversight. Doing so unleashed a tsunami of trouble. It rages out-of-control. It more than ever turned Wall Street into a casino.

It facilitates fraud. It does so on an unprecedented scale. It wrecked the economy. It scams millions of investors. It hangs ordinary people out to dry. It spreads human misery. It does so on a global scale.

As Obama's National Economic Council director (2009 - 2010), Summers pushed destructive economic policies. He did so for personal gain.

He peddled influence. He earned millions of dollars doing so. He got millions more in Wall Street sponsored speaking fees. Bailed out banks rewarded him for services rendered.

William Greider said stop him "before he messes up again." Mendacity is his most notable attribute.

He's "noxious." He's a "clumsy public liar." He collaborates with Wall Street insiders. He helped engineer financial collapse. Appointing him Fed chairman "will be a sick joke."

Say it isn't so. He represents same old, same old. He's a disaster waiting to happen.

Greider urged "no more second chances for Larry Summers." Once bitten is enough.

As World Bank chief economist (1991 - 1993), he supported structural adjustment harshness. He drafted an infamous secret memo. He called Africa under-polluted.

He proposed a "free market in toxics." He said the World Bank should encourage "migration of dirty industries to the LDSs (less developed countries)."

"Health impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages," he added.

He stoked further controversy saying:

"There are no...limits to the carrying capacity of the earth that are likely to bind any time in the foreseeable future."

"There isn't a risk of an apocalypse due to global warming or anything else."

"The idea that we should put limits on growth because of some natural limit, is a profound error and one that, were it ever to prove influential, would have staggering social costs."

Critics demanded his resignation. Brazil's environmental secretary, Jose Lutzenberger, wrote him. He called his ideas "totally insane."

They reflect the "social ruthlessness and arrogant ignorance of many conventional economists concerning the nature of the world we live in."

"If the World Bank keeps you as (chief economist), it will lose all credibility."

As Harvard president, he pushed a right wing neocon agenda. He supported reestablishing ROTC.

Vietnam War era campus protests downgraded it to an extracurricular activity. Harvard let students participate at MIT.

Summer's proposal failed. In March 2011, President Drew Faust returned Naval ROTC. She did so disgracefully.

Summers accused African-American Studies Professor Cornel West of spending too much time on political activism. West left for Princeton.

He called Black professors unfit scholars. He was fired for making derogatory remarks about women. Faculty and staff demanded he go.

He supports Israeli occupation harshness. In 2002, he campaigned against Harvard and other universities divesting from companies doing business with Israel. He called doing so "anti-Semitic."

In September 2010, Nomi Prins headlined "Bye Larry Summers - Thanks for the Hangover," saying:

"The departure of Larry Summers from President Obama’s Economic Advisory Free-market Squad, is similar to that of the high-school degenerate who left the keg party after the last barrel was emptied and the place was demolished."

"Only it was the reckless financial deregulation he promoted through Glass Steagall repeal as Treasury Secretary in 1999 that brought about the Great Bailout Party of 2008 where Wall Street drank the federal subsidy barrel dry and left the general economy trashed."

"It's good he's finally leaving, but it should have happened long ago."

Imagine a second act. Imagine the unimaginable. Summers as Fed chairman assures the equivalent of financial nuclear winter for humanity.

On July 31, AP headlined "Obama speaks up for Larry Summers as liberal Democrats question consideration for Fed post," saying:

"Speaking up for a contentious former aide, President Barack Obama pushed back Wednesday against liberal Democrats who are urging the president not to pick Lawrence Summers to run the Federal Reserve."

"In a closed-door session with House Democrats, Obama offered what participants in the meeting described as a keen defense of Summers."

It "continued at the White House, where press secretary Jay Carney said Summers had 'stood shoulder to shoulder' with Obama during an economic crisis."

"He made decisions and put forth the policies that helped reverse the tragic economic decline that this country faced in the beginning of 2009."

False! He helped turn disaster into catastrophe. He did so for growing millions. Protracted Main Street Depression continues out-of-control.

Wrongheaded policies deepen it. Obama bears full responsibility. So does Summers. His tenure as White House point man was disastrous.

It bears repeating. He's in bed with Wall Street. He operates for personal gain. He's a walking conflict of interest. He assures greater disaster than already.

On August 2, Francis Boyle headlined "The Cowardice of Harvard's Larry Summers," saying:

He wanted to debate Summers publicly. At issue is calling Harvard alumni involved in urging Israeli divestment anti-Semitic.

He "did not have the courage, the integrity, or the principles to back up his scurrilous charges," said Boyle.

Harvard fired him for "attempt(ing) to impose his Neo-Conservative agenda and in particular (claiming) women are dumber than men when it comes to math and science."

He's an unconscionable Fed chairman choice. Appointing him defends the indefensible. He assures deepening hard times for millions.

Robert Weissman's an economic expert. He's written extensively on financial and corporate accountability. He heads Public Citizen.

"Forget Larry," he says. A petition calls him "the wrong person to lead the Federal Reserve."

"Summers has continuously advocated for deregulation and other policies that favor Wall Street and corporate interests. He should not head the nation’s central bank."

"Sign our petition urging President Obama to nominate someone better suited than Larry Summers to be Federal Reserve Board Chair."

"After you sign the petition, Public Citizen will keep you updated on other ways to stand up to giant corporations and their cronies like Larry Summers."

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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