The Summers memo was a 1991 memo on trade

liberalization Liberalization or liberalisation (British English) is a broad term that refers to the practice of making laws, systems, or opinions less severe, usually in the sense of eliminating certain government regulations or restrictions. The term is used m ...

that was written by

Lant Pritchett Lant Pritchett (born 1959) is an American development economist. He is the RISE Research Director at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. He was born in Utah in 1959 and raised in Boise, Idaho. He graduated from Brigham Yo ...

and signed by

Lawrence Summers Lawrence Henry Summers (born November 30, 1954) is an American economist who served as the 71st United States secretary of the treasury from 1999 to 2001 and as director of the National Economic Council from 2009 to 2010. He also served as pr ...

who was then Chief

Economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

of the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

. It included a section that both Summers and Pritchett say was sarcastic that suggested dumping

toxic waste Toxic waste is any unwanted material in all forms that can cause harm (e.g. by being inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the skin). Mostly generated by industry, consumer products like televisions, computers, and phones contain toxic chemi ...

in third-world countries for perceived economic benefits. After the material was leaked by Roberto Smeraldi of

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split wi ...

to ''

Jornal do Brasil ''Jornal do Brasil'', widely known as ''JB'', is a daily newspaper published by Editora JB in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The paper was founded in 1891 and is the third oldest extant Brazilian paper, after the '' Diário de Pernambuco'' and ''O Est ...

'' on February 2, 1992., quoted on page 135 of
Nomination Of Lawrence H. Summers
Hearing before the Committee on Finance'', Senate, 103rd Cong. 1 (1993). Pritchett (who worked under Summers) stated that he had written the memo and Summers had only signed it, and that it was intended to be "sarcastic". According to Pritchett, the memo as leaked was doctored to remove context and intended irony, and was "a deliberate fraud and forgery to discredit Larry and the World Bank". Daniel Hausman and Michael McPherson have argued that the satirical section might seem to be based in economics as a science, but in fact contains strong moral premises which cannot be removed and still leave the argument intact. Brazil's environment secretary Jose Lutzenberger argued that it demonstrated "the arrogant ignorance of many conventional 'economists' concerning the nature of the world we live in".text and commentary
The Whirled Bank (satirical website)

Text of the excerpt

Coverage

Extensive news articles and discussion regarding this memo were included in th
US Senate hearing records
for Summers' nomination to Secretary of the Treasury in 1993. In this hearing, Summers stated:

References

{{reflist

External links

The Logic of a Free Market Economist
a critique of some of the economic logic in the memo. Environmental policy Memoranda Economic globalization Classified documents 1991 documents History of globalization