The drive to replace Ben Bernanke as the Federal Reserve Chairman is boiling down to two choices, Larry Summers and Janet Yellen. At the root, this is a fight between the status quo, where the banks have control, against a candidate who has made it her duty to protect the American people.

Larry Summers has made it clear that he is no friend of the common man. And, a new report by the Boston Globe shines light on the opposition to his appointment, led by fellow Harvard alum, Senator Elisabeth Warren. While setting up the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, the lead nominee to head this department was Elizabeth Warren. She found that nomination blocked by a powerful lobby, with Larry Summers leading the way.

In attacking her nomination, Mr. Summers showed himself not the friend of the consumer, but of the big banks. During the 1990’s he led the way in overturning Glass-Steagall. He has regularly fought against banking regulations, fitting considering that he serves as a paid consultant for Citigroup, a position he has held since 2012. He has gone on the record as having no regrets over his fight to deregulate the banks. For him, now-Senator Warren’s fight to protect people from predatory lenders was an affront to his masters, the banking giants who sign his paycheck. Or, was it something less business and more… gender?

It turns out that Larry Summers has said multiple disparaging things on women in finance over the years. His viewpoint, that there are less women in the financial sector due to, as he called it, a lack of ‘aptitude’ shows something else working behind the scenes. Beyond his financial ties, and desire to defend his banking masters, the person who had stepped up to lead the new bureau was a woman, a group who lacked ‘aptitude’ in his estimation. On top of being plain wrong about the need to regulate our financial institutions, we find good old-fashioned misogyny at work. Of course his allies on Wall Street were quick to defend him, saying that just because he stated that women do not succeed at math and science due to being women, a statement he continued to defend, that does not disqualify him for the top job at the Federal Reserve.

His eagerness for deregulation, with the capstone being the elimination of the protections found under Glass-Steagall resulted in the economic bubble which led to the crash in 2007 being termed the Summers Bubble. Do we really want someone in charge of the banking regulatory body who simply does not understand the importance of regulation? No, absolutely we do not. Someone who does not comprehend the damage which his antics has done to this once great nation has no place running the Federal Reserve.

Instead, Elizabeth Warren and a cadre of Democratic Senators have all voiced their support for the #2 person within the Federal Reserve, Vice Chairperson Janet Yellen. Like Larry Summers, she is an accomplished economist, but instead of Mr. Summers life within the big banks, Ms. Yellen has spent her entire professional life in public service. She has been part of the Federal Reserve system since 1977, and has taught at several universities over the years. And her focus is on the public good, the American people. Her focus is on unemployment, not on inflation.

Why Larry Summers would seek this position at this time is obvious. With the Federal Reserve flexing its regulatory muscles the banks want to ensure that their man, paid for with the blood money extracted from millions of ordinary Americans, is put in charge to stop this effort once and for all. They will not rest until this is one nation under their collective thumbs. And the idea of having someone in charge of the Fed who is not paid for by them has brought out their collective cash muscle.

Bank-supported media has come out trying to paint Summers and Yellen as similar in philosophy. Others have tried to claim that any resistance to Mr. Summers would result in a worse candidate being nominated. Some of those in the media have labelled Larry Summers is a long shot while others contend that he is a shoe in.

Instead of weak-willed Larry Summers, we need a strong regulator in the Federal Reserve to put the pressure on the banks. They need to be downsized, regulated, and broken up. So long as they can gamble with taxpayer insured money, to overextend themselves knowing that the federal government will always back them up, they will never act in the best interests of the nation, or of their shareholders. Larry Summers was wrong on deregulation, on the banks, on Elizabeth Warren, and is the wrong man for the Federal Reserve.