an unflattering manner. abc's rick klein has more. >> reporter: banks were failing, the dow was tanking, economists feared another great depression. and in the white house, according to a new book by journalist ron suskind, obama's economic team was fighting with itself. a top economic aid, larry summers is quoted as telling a colleague in 2009, we're home alone. there's no adult in charge. clinton would never have made these mistakes. and two female members of this president's senior team sound off about a white house they depict as a boys club. this place would be in court for a hostile workplace, former white house communications director anita dunn says. another top economist, christina romer, says she was sometimes treated like she doesn't matter. quote, i felt like a piece of meat. the white house pushback has been fierce. summers, dunn and romer all say they were misquoted and claim suskind exaggerated incidents. others who were there say the book doesn't ring true. >> you put a bunch of economists in a room, we're going to argue