Advocacy group calls out Larry Summers for his role in cryptocurrency craze
An advocacy group focused on calling out the conflicts of interest of public officials is taking former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers to task for his role in the current crash of cryptocurrency markets - a crash that has broader economic implications, the group claims.
Specifically, the Revolving Door Project is calling Summers out for his role as an advisor to Digital Currency Group (DCG), a cryptocurrency conglomerate.
“For years, Summers advised DCG on the one hand, and made widely-reported positive statements about Bitcoin and the crypto industry on the other," said Jeff Hauser, Executive Director of The Revolving Door Project. "Then, as DCG and the broader crypto market began to crumble a few months ago, Summers slipped out the back door, quietly deleting his name from the DCG website. The media shouldn’t let him wipe his hands of the cryptocurrency industry or treat his speculation on future economic trends the same as they would someone who didn’t spend years opening doors for crypto barons.”
Revolving Door noted that cryptocurrency insiders used Summers to promote their product even as the industry was struggling. Summers' past role as a key economic advisor to American Presidents lent legitimacy to the purveyors of crypto assets.
“As we saw with FTX and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, revolvers like Summers play a critical role in legitimating the crypto industry, and opening doors in public policy and the media.” It’s imperative that the press informs the public of conflicts of interest when reporting on crypto or any industry. Better yet, the media simply shouldn’t offer a platform to someone playacting as a sage economist offering independent analysis when just a few internet searches expose that that person is part of the same industry they’re analyzing,” Hauser said.
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