November 2003 - VOLUME 24 - NUMBER 11
T H E L A W R E N C E S U M M E R S M
E M O R I A L A W A R D
November 2003 - VOLUME 24 - NUMBER 11
T H E L A W R E N C E S U M M E R S M
E M O R I A L A W A R D
THE LAWRENCE SUMMERS MEMORIAL AWARD*The November 2003 Lawrence Summers Memorial Award* goes to South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Joe Erwin. Erwin says he plans to seek corporate sponsorships to help raise $500,000 to hold the state party's February primary, which the state party has to pay for. "Some statewide corporation may want their company identified with democracy," Erwin, a Greenville, South Carolina, marketing executive, told the Charlotte Observer. "You do what you have to do as long as you do it legally and with integrity." "It somewhat changes the nature of politics," acknowledged Erwin, "but boy, isn't it consistent with the way things are changing?" Source: Jennifer Talhelm, "Ads on ballots to pay for S.C. primary? Sponsor logos on ballots not out of the question," Charlotte Observer, October 3, 2003. |
| *In a 1991 internal memorandum, then-World Bank economist Lawrence Summers argued for the transfer of waste and dirty industries from industrialized to developing countries. "Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs (lesser developed countries)?" wrote Summers, who went on to serve as Treasury Secretary during the Clinton administration. "I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that. ... I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly under polluted; their air quality is vastly inefficiently low [sic] compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City." Summers later said the memo was meant to be ironic. |