Former Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers, withdrew his bid to secede Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
In a letter to President Barack Obama, he wrote, “I have reluctantly concluded that any possible confirmation process for me would be acrimonious and would not serve the interests of the Federal Reserve, the Administration, or ultimately, the interests of the nation’s ongoing recovery,” Bloomberg reports.
Over the past few weeks, Summers has encountered great opposition among Democrats who feared his deregulatory tendencies might hurt the recovering economy.
“If you nominate someone who is a life-committed deregulator to be in a regulatory position, and if you believe regulation is necessary to prevent fraud, abuse, manipulation and so forth, then there’s a lot of questions to asked,” said Oregon Senator, Jeff Merkley.
Even Democrats who expressed support for Summers, worried that his nomination might lead to internal divide within the party.
With Summers out of the race for chairman of the Federal Reserve, many see Janet Yellen, the current Fed vice chairman, as the next obvious candidate. She would be the first woman chairman of the Federal Reserve, The Los Angeles Times reports.