Cenk Uygur: 'It's over' if Obama appoints Larry Summers to the Federal Reserve

No one can claim President Barack Obama is a progressive if Larry Summers ends up at the Federal Reserve, Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks said on Thursday.

"If he appoints Larry Summers it is over," he remarked. "There is no one that can make the case that President Obama is actually a progressive at heart. 'Oh, wait for the second term. In the second term he'll be really progressive.' Then why would he take the guy most responsible for deregulation, for agreeing with the Republicans, for giving the banks everything they wanted and give him the most powerful position? Because he's not a progressive.

"If Larry Summers is appointed, it's the final nail in that coffin. No one in their right mind could call President Obama a progressive."

Obama is rumored to be considering nominating former White House Economic Adviser Larry Summers to replace Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Uygur noted that Summers had pushed to deregulate the banking industry during his time in the Clinton administration, where he served as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and later Secretary of the Treasury. Summers supported the successful repeal of a key provision of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, removing barriers between commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies and securities firms.

Though the deregulation of Wall Street lead to an financial collapse in 2008, Summers has said he wouldn't do much different in retrospect.

"Even considering Larry Summers for the position is something no progressive would ever do," Uygur concluded.

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