a quote from the chief economist at the World Bank, an institution purportedly established to aid development and reduce world poverty. In a leaked 1992 internal memo on pollution, he expressed the view that “a given amount of health-impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages. I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable.” This chief economist was Larry Summers, who went on to serve as secretary of the treasury in the Democratic Clinton administration.33
