JUNE 1997 · VOLUME 18 · NUMBER 5
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 JUNE 1997 LAWRENCE SUMMERS MEMORIAL AWARD* goes to World Bank
President James Wolfensohn and Enron President Jeffrey Skilling. Here are the
comments which earned them this prestigious prize:
"You know, there are some people who are just losers. There are some
countries that are just losers. And if you forgive them the debt, it doesn't
make a lot of difference." (World Bank President James Wolfensohn, responding
to suggestions that the World Bank should write off the debts owed it by
developing countries, quoted in Dipankar De Sarkar, "Development: Eradicating
Poverty in 20 Years -- Cause for Optimism?," InterPress Service, June 13,
1997.)
"You must cut costs ruthlessly by 50 to 60 percent. Depopulate. Get rid
of people. They gum up the works. (Enron President Jeffrey Skilling at an
electricity industry conference in Arizona, quoted in "Enron President: `People
Gum Up the Works,'" The Seattle Times, April 5, 1997.)
* In a 1991 internal memorandum, then-World Bank economist and current Deputy
Secretary of Treasury 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)?" Summers wrote. "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.
