Meanwhile, Summers is infamous for a memo he wrote while he was chief economist at the World Bank encouraging the dumping of more waste in Africa.  One of his arguments is that any health consequences related to toxic pollution should be put on low wage countries because it will have a lower long-term economic cost.  He also argues that since the life expectancy is lower anyway in Africa, it makes sense to dump trash there.  Yikes.  As the media has been picking up again on this story, I couldn't help but think about recent campaigns fighting electronic waste dumping in Ghana, the recent court case related to toxic waste dumping in Ivory Coast and of course, the environmental implications of Firestone's rubber plantation in Liberia.

Summers also came under fire when he was at Harvard for claiming that innate differences between men and women caused fewer women to succeed in carreers in math and science and questioned the role that discrimination plays in this problem.  Among other controversies during his time at Harvard, this episode eventually led Summers to step down from his position at Harvard.  Women's groups are already expressing their concerns about Summers.

In the 2008 election, voters in the U.S. showed how much they want serious changes in our economic and foreign policy.  Global Trade Watch just put out a new report showing that voters overwhelmingly made fair trade principles a major factor in the election.  Does Larry Summers represent the change that voters were looking for?  Will low-wage workers in the U.S. and around the world benefit from policies promoted by Summers?  You can share your own thoughts on this issue through President-Elect Obama's new government website: Change.gov.  Let us know what you think in the comments section, too.