Treasury Secretary Short List: Lawrence Summers

Summers resigned the presidency of Harvard a year after making the controversial speech. Some who know him say making the speech was "stupid," but it doesn't reflect his true feelings.

"What I think upsets me about this is that taking that incident aside, his track record on women is amazing," said Sheryl Sandberg, Summers' chief of staff during his days at Treasury and the current COO of Facebook.

She said in addition to consistently appointing women to positions of power and influence, he took up the cause of girls' education on a world stage well before it was fashionable.

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"Larry did this speech on girls' education at the World Bank in 1992," said Sandberg. "We wrote this report and he gave his speech saying girls' education is the highest return financial investment you can make in your country. You want to help your economy? Start investing in girls' education."

Assuming Obama overlooks the potential political fallout from women's groups and taps Summers for the top job at Treasury, he will get someone who has a well-defined sense of the financial world.

"He's fiscally responsible," said Sandberg. "He has a deep understanding of how markets work, and, I think, has seen a lot from the political side, the academic side and the policy side of what really happens."

Summers, a self-described "market-oriented progressive," has been publicly outlining what he believes must happen to address the current economic crisis.

"I think moving beyond a 'trust the market no matter what, what's best for Wall Street is what's best for America' approach to the financial markets is important if the economy is to work," Summers told Portfolio earlier this year. "That's what Sen. Obama favors."

In his regular column for the Financial Times, Summers offered a prescription for a new regulatory order, including reducing the number of financial system regulators, focusing government efforts on maintaining the health of the entire system instead of the practices of individual companies and making sure financial firms do not get "too big to fail."