November 6, 2008: The New Agenda protests consideration of Larry Summers for Treasury Secretary
For Immediate Release
Contact: Amy Siskind
Email: NewAgendaPress@yahoo.com
Date: 11.06.08
CONTROVERSIAL FIGURE BEING CONSIDERED BY OBAMA FOR TREASURY SECRETARY
The New Agenda is voicing concern about news reports that former Harvard President Larry Summers may be tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as Treasury Secretary in the new administration. Given the nation’s dire economic situation it is critical that the Obama transition team select highly qualified individuals who can immediately address the worries and fears of the American public. Summers’ record of derogatory comments aimed at women ensures that his selection would be divisive and thus distract from efforts to fix the economy.
“Larry Summers has a clear and unequivocal record of sexism and misogyny. Summers’ work history demonstrates a clear inability to work well with others, especially women,” said New Agenda co-founder Amy Siskind. “Certainly, Senator Obama putting Summers into any sort of prominent leadership role would be a step backwards for the women of this country.”
Summers resigned as President at Harvard after stating that women aren’t as prominent at advanced levels of math and science because of lesser intrinsic aptitude. His remarks ignited a firestorm of controversy that led the faculty to express a lack of confidence in his ability to lead the university.
“In these stressed economic times, an individual who displays intellectual laziness and closed-mindedness, who failed to do due diligence on an issue that had a potential to negatively impact 50% of the population, who has problems with women as colleagues, and to whom a large portion of the country will react with distaste is a poor choice for Treasury Secretary,” said Dr. Nancy Hopkins, New Agenda co-founder and MIT biology professor.
It now appears Summers is also partly to blame for our country’s financial woes. While serving as Treasury Secretary in 1998, Summers ignored an early warning from a woman colleague about the unregulated derivative market. Summers then publicly derided and sought to humiliate U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Brooksley E. Born. Born had attempted to speak out about the inherent risks in not regulating derivatives which have become a big part of the unraveling of the economy.
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