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For Immediate Release
July, 22 2013, 04:58pm EDT
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Summers for Fed Chair? "Great Gift to the Mega-Banks"
WASHINGTON
WILLIAM GREIDER, 36greider at gmail.com
Greider, national affairs correspondent for The Nation and author of Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country, just wrote: "Washington insiders are spreading an alarming news alert. Barack Obama, I am told, is on the brink of making a terrible mistake by appointing Lawrence Summers as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve. That sounds improbable, since Summers is a toxic retread from the old boys' network and a nettlesome egotist who offended just about everyone during his previous tours in government. More to the point, Summers was a central player in the grave governing errors that led to the financial collapse and a ruined economy.
"Surely not, I thought, when I heard the gossip. But my source heard it from the White House. Obama's senior economic advisers -- still dominated by Clintonistas and aging acolytes of Robert Rubin -- are pushing the president to choose Summers as the successor to Ben Bernanke, whose term ends in January. And they are urging Obama to make the announcement right now, before the opposition can get organized.
"To thwart this ploy, Democratic senators and rank-and-file constituents need to sound the alarm promptly and promise, loud and clear, to vote against Summers if Obama once again accepts the choice of the Clinton-Rubin crowd. The former Harvard president was himself a Wall Street player between his government positions. He was a soft-on-banks adviser to Obama during the president's first term. Choosing Summers now would be another great gift to the mega-banks. But it would be a very tough vote for Democrats who claim the mantle of reform." Greider's latest book is Come Home, America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of Our Country.
DEAN BAKER, via Alan Barber, barber@cepr.net
Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He said today: "Picking Larry Summers for Fed chair would be exactly the wrong message to send at the moment. Summers is one of the main architects of the policies that have given us the worst downturn since the Great Depression. It would an especially bad signal to send when there is an outstanding pick already at the Fed serving as Vice-Chair, Janet Yellen. It's great to give people second chances, but it doesn't have to be in the country's most important economic post." Baker wrote the pieces "The Return of Larry Summers?" and "Democracy Versus Bankers at the Fed."
Baker blogs at "Beat the Press" and his books include: The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive [available for free online] and False Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy.
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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Fine, who has the endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump in his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives, called himself the "Hebrew Hammer" in a post on X on Tuesday and suggested Reps. Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Omar (D-Minn.) should leave office for their own safety.
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arrested 21 pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade route.
According toABC 7:
For the second year in a row, the group ran in front of the Ronald McDonald float to briefly stop the parade.
This year, they jumped the barricades at West 55th Street just after 9:30 am.
Many sat on the ground, locking arms and chanting "Free, free Palestine!"
Others held a banner behind them, reading "Don't celebrate genocide! Arms embargo now."
Video footage shared on social media shows members of the New York Police Department grabbing protesters and their banner, and throwing at least one person face-first into the road.
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NDN Collective said that "as Indigenous peoples, we reject colonial holidays rooted in the genocidal erasure of our existence. We demand #LANDBACK to reclaim sovereignty, repair ties with Mother Earth, and protect Indigenous ways of life—honoring them for generations to come."
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