Shouldn’t these people have their fortunes locked in a poorly administered blind trust before accepting office?
Lawrence Summers’ bullish economic sentiments helped send markets soaring at the end of last week. But even after assuming his role as the president’s top economic adviser in January, Summers seemed far more skeptical that the markets would recover any time soon, as evidenced by the only metric that really counts–his own personal cash. Specifically, in 2008 through early 2009, Summers stashed most of his liquid assets in tax-free municipal bonds–between $5 million and $25 million worth–leaving himself relatively little exposure to the stock market, a Daily Beast analysis of his recently released financial-disclosure report reveals.
Of course, it is entertaining to pit Summers against Geithner, as The Beast happily proceeds to do, but we think we can be forgiven for thinking both of these two should have all their money locked in an emerging markets ETF by a 20something analyst at a foreign firm. That would, after all, be fitting, no?
What Do They Know That We Don’t? [The Daily Beast]
If he were invested all in the market, we’d be accusing him of pumping up the market for his own benefit.
Guy can’t win.
The Duke of Wellington sent carrier pigeons to London with buy orders after Waterloo. Priveledge of the office as old as time.
I don’t think munis did too well in that period either, did they?
We need to seriously rethink the assumption that municipal bonds are a safe investment choice for government officials to avoid conflicts of interest. Municipalities are in terrible financial condition and as their pension liabilities become clearer, they’re going to get worse. It’s very likely that at some point in the next four years, Larry Summers is going to be asked to advise on bailouts to municipalities to help them avoid bankruptcy.
If Larry Summers is advising anyone over the next four years there is something dramatically wrong with our country; his list of ‘conflicts of values’ (Frank Rich’s term, not mine) is endless:
Cornel West
Taconic
D.E. Shaw
Russia
Plus, a protege of Rubin and mentor to Geithner
Please, put him out of our misery!