Editing Summers memo (section)

{{Short description|1991 memo on trade liberalization}}
[[File:Lawrence Summers, 1990.jpg|thumb|Larry Summers in 1990]]
The '''Summers memo''' was a 1991 memo on trade [[neoliberalism|liberalization]] that was written by [[Lant Pritchett]] and signed by [[Lawrence Summers]] who was then Chief [[Economist]] of the [[World Bank]]. It included a section that both Summers and Pritchett say was sarcastic that suggested dumping [[toxic waste]] in [[third-world countries]] for perceived economic benefits.<ref name="cato-potential-1">{{cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Jay |author2=Gary Pecquet |author3=Leon Taylor|date=Fall 2007|title=Potential Gains from Trade in Dirty Industries: Revisiting Lawrence Summers' Memo |journal=Cato Journal|publisher=Cato Institute|volume=27|issue=3|url=https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2007/11/cj27n3-6.pdf}}</ref>

After the material was leaked by [[Roberto Smeraldi]] of [[Friends of the Earth]] to ''[[Jornal do Brasil]]'' on February 2, 1992.<ref name="jornal">{{cite news|title=World Bank Analyst Suggests Transferring Pollution to the Poor|work=[[Jornal do Brasil]]|date=2 February 1992|ref=jornal}}, quoted on page 135 of ''[http://www.finance.senate.gov/download/nomination-of-lawrence-h-summers Nomination Of Lawrence H. Summers]: Hearing before the Committee on Finance'', Senate, 103rd Cong. 1 (1993).</ref> 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".<ref name="harvardmag">{{cite journal|title=Toxic Memo|journal=Harvard Magazine|date=1 May 2001|url=http://www.harvardmagazine.com/2001/05/toxic-memo.html|accessdate=13 July 2016}}</ref>

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.<ref name="econmoral">{{cite book|last1=Hausman|first1=Daniel M.|last2=McPherson|first2=Michael S.|title=Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy and Public Policy|date=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York, NY|isbn=9781139450652|pages=12–23|edition=2nd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZR_QJXfrfuEC&pg=PA12|ref=econmoral}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite news |title=Lawrence Summers: Africa Is |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lawrence-summers-africa-i_b_141706 |work=HuffPost |date=6 December 2008}}</ref>