Who is Claudia Sahm? Larry Summers was accused of demeaning women by economist five years before Epstein email controversy

Economist Lawrence H. Summers, better known as Larry Summers, has been facing backlash online following the release of his private text conversations with Jeffrey Epstein. The Harvard professor reportedly had hundreds of email exchanges with the disgraced financier between 2013 and 2019. 

The former US Secretary of the Treasury has withdrawn from public life amid the criticism for remarks in private texts, Politico reported. In an October 2017 email, Summers seemingly referenced his controversial comments from a 2005 National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) conference. He wrote (via The Guardian): 

“I’m trying to figure why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard. But hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.” 

Larry added: 

“I observed that half of the IQ In [the] world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51% of population.” 

While the revelations have garnered backlash for Larry Summers, another economist called him out for similar remarks in 2020. Claudia Sahm, founder of Sahm Consulting, slammed Summers and others in a post on her MacroMom blog.

Sahm currently serves as Chief Economist for New Century Advisors, according to her LinkedIn profile. She previously worked with Jain Family Institute as Director of Macroeconomic Research and Senior Fellow. 

Claudia Sahm also has nearly 12.5 years of experience as a Federal Reserve Board of Governors economist. She served as the board’s Section Chief from 2017 to 2019, following her tenure as Principal Economist and Senior Economist. 

Claudia, who also worked as a Senior Economist at the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, is also known for developing the “Sahm Rule.” It is a real-time Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) recession indicator, according to Reuters. 

Claudia Sahm called out Larry Summers and accused him of sexism in 2020  

Nearly five years before the Epstein Estate email cache was released by the House Oversight Committee, the former Harvard president was criticized in a blog post. The acclaimed economist asserted that Larry Summers’ bad behavior had been tolerated by other elites and added: 

“The reverence toward Larry Summer exemplifies my claim. During his entire career, Summers has attacked others who disagree with him.” 

my words on Larry were the most severe in my post. first time ever I called out someone's IQ. (see below for the context.) and his is the only part of my post I re-wrote before I sent to Janet and Ben because it was too fiery. pic.twitter.com/xPKvxT380a

— Claudia Sahm (@Claudia_Sahm) February 21, 2021

After briefly stating Summers’ accomplishments and past work, Claudia Sahm added: 

“Summers has done more than any current economist to devalue the contributions of women economists during my career.” 

She invoked the former Harvard president’s 2005 remarks at a NBER conference and wrote: 

“One hypothesis he offered for fewer women faculty in the sciences was ‘different availability of aptitude at the high end.’ One could counter ‘Larry was only ‘asking questions’ about women's IQ. Anyone who does research knows that the questions we ask reflect our priors and our interests.” 

Claudia Sahm recounted: 

“I was a PhD student at the time of his speech. I did not attend the lecture, but I heard about it. I cannot imagine how the women in the room felt. I know I felt awful when I read it. It is badly argued and tone deaf at the struggles that women face in economics.”

Sahm continued criticizing Larry Summers: 

“Summers continues to demean women economics. I had an early career woman come to me recently with an inexcusable interaction with him. Larry, it is not women’s IQ, it’s yours that is the problem.”

I turned down an interview for a Deputy Assistant Secretary job at Treasury after White House tried to destroy my reputation for criticizing Larry Summers publicly. ❤️ https://t.co/AUSbB7wfT5

— Claudia Sahm (@Claudia_Sahm) October 9, 2021

In October 2021, in response to why she isn’t working with the Biden administration, Sahm accused the White House of attempting to destroy her reputation for criticizing Larry. In September 2022, the economist updated the blog post, redacting every prominent name and editing out some details.