So Larry Summers is out of the running as Fed chief, and what a relief that is.

He helped deregulate Wall Street when he was in the Clinton Administration, and that led to the stock market collapse and the Great Recession, which began five years ago this week.

And in the Obama Administration, he low-balled the first stimulus package, which is one big reason why the unemployment rate has yet to fall under 7 percent.

Plus, when he was president of Harvard, Summers made an appallingly sexist comment that cost him his job there.

He's just not a guy who should wield a lot of power.

He could be the most arrogant man in America, and that's not a contest I'm eager to referee.

His arrogance, and his coziness with Wall Street, cost him his coveted spot at the head of the Federal Reserve.

And it cost him because progressive Democrats in the Senate stood their ground and told Obama in no uncertain terms that they wouldn't confirm him.

As Bernie Sanders said: "It was unlikely he would have been confirmed by the Senate. What the American people want now is a Fed chairman prepared to stand up to the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street, not a Wall Street insider whose deregulation efforts helped pave the way for a horrendous financial crisis and the worst economic downturn in the country since the Great Depression."

So that's two big victories for progressives in the last two weeks.

No war in Syria.

And no Summers at the Fed.

Hey, I can get used to this.

If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the Senior editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his story The 5 Most Ludicrous War Claims in Syria Speech.

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