Short and to the point: If you want to do something for the country, today:
Call WH @ (202) 456-1111
Tell them: "Heck no (or Hell no) on Larry Summers for Fed Chair." and "Yes, for Yellen."
Why? From HuffPo, today:
[Janet] Yellen's ability to spot the problems on Wall Street, and Summers' failure to foresee the consequence of deregulation, both flow from the perspectives they have as economists. [Janet] Yellen looks first at what's known as the "real economy" -- unemployment, wage growth, housing, and other gauges of how real people are faring. Summers, for most of his career, has been oriented toward Wall Street. Faith that Wall Street could regulate itself led Summers to press for some of the most sweeping reforms of financial regulations, including the final repeal of Glass-Steagall, a Depression-era law that barred banks from gambling with federally backed dollars.
Or, from Sheila Blair in Fortune:
... she had a solid record as a bank regulator at the San Francisco Fed and was one of the few in the Fed system to sound the alarm on the risks of subprime mortgages in 2007.
So why isn't she a shoo-in? The "whispering" campaign against her among industry types has been deafening. "Doesn't understand markets." Translation: She may not bail us out if we get into trouble again. "Not assertive enough." Translation: She won't stand up for us against the populists who want more regulation. "Lacks gravitas." Translation: She doesn't show up very often in the financial media. (Rest assured that if she were more vocal, they would accuse her of not being a "team player.") Perhaps the silliest argument of the "not-Yellen" crowd is that this well-qualified woman can't be elevated because no other Fed Vice-Chair has ever been promoted to Chairman. It's simply not done. Come again?
Here's that number, again, if you don't already have it in contacts:
Call WH @ (202) 456-1111