With just nine months to go in the Beard Era, the time has come for the press to start casting about for a successor. There’s the obvious one: Janet Yellen, Fed vice chairwoman, who has friends and foes, according to the Gray Lady. Apparently, though, she may be a little too worried about getting people jobs, and not worried enough about whipping inflation now. Read more »
Larry Summers
Who should replace Ben S. Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve when his term ends in January 2014? If anyone cared to ask us, we’d say no one: we like our Fed Chairman soft-spoken, bearded, and just as comfortable in dad jeans as they are in their bespoke Jos. A. Bank suits. But nobody asked and, according to Andrew Ross Sorkin, Bernanke has told “close friends” that regardless of whether or not Obama wins a second term, he’s ready to move on. Apparently qualified successors are few and far between and while Larry Summers is said to be “at the top of the list,” the fact that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner may finally be granted freedom from his own personal Guantanamo Bay and will also necessitate a replacement who will have to work closely with the new Fed Chair poses some staffing issues, on account of the perception that Summers is somewhat difficult to work with. Read more »
Is Larry Summers going to get the nomination for World Bank president? It’s unclear at this time but lest Obama be seriously considering him for the gig, a bunch of people would like to put it out there that the former Treasury Secretary would be a “terrible pick.” In 24 hours over 37,000 people have signed a petition urging Obama to say no to Big Lar, citing his comments about women and science and the fact that Christina Romer said she felt “like a piece of meat” while working with him in the White House as evidence of unfitness for the job. Once his arch nemesii get a hold of things thing and forwards it to their friends the sky’s the limit. He’ll be lucky to get a nomination ripping tickets at a Clearview Cinemas in White Plains.
What did Larry Summers really think of the Winklevoss twins? “Rarely, have I encountered such swagger, and I tried to respond in kind,” the former president of Harvard said in an interview at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss were at Harvard at the same time that Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, and they had come to Summers for help in their fight for a piece of the action. Summers dismissed them, a scene dramatized in the movie the “Social Network.” Summers didn’t try to dispel the portrayal. “One of the things you learn as a college president is that if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o’clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they’re looking for a job and have an interview; the other is that they are an a**hole. This was the latter case.” [Fortune]
Morning Money hears that at yesterday’s executive meeting, Blackstone chief Steve Schwarzman took a shot at former NEC Chair Larry Summers’ FT column calling for a number of actions to spur job growth, including expanding the payroll tax cut to employers. “I thought I was looking at a Saturday Night Live script,” Schwarzman said, according to our source. “Who was in charge the past two years?” [MM via BI]
According to CNBC’s Kate Kelly, BH made the decision to close the $600 million fund after portfolio manager Fabrizio Gallo left to join Bank of America (which has got to hurt) and investors were rumored to be unhappy with the ‘personnel changes.’ In related news, Larry Summers has apparently been tapped to help ‘woo‘ new clients, so they should be okay.
A U.S. appeals court ruled Monday that the Winklevoss twins can’t back out of a settlement they struck with Facebook Inc. to resolve claims that founder Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for the social network. In a 2008 settlement…Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss got $20 million in cash and $45 million in Facebook stock to drop their suit claiming that Mr. Zuckerberg deceived them when he agreed to work for their company, called ConnectU, on a similar website…after they signed the settlement, the Winklevosses said they learned that Facebook’s board had adopted an internal valuation of just $3.7 billion. Had this lower valuation been used, the Winklevoss twins would have received more Facebook shares as part of their settlement. [WSJ]
Related: Larry Summers Will Not Apologize For Being A Dick To The Winklevoss Twins
Mitt Romney says that if he runs for president, “I won’t be asking Tim Geithner how the economy works—or Larry Summers how to start a business.” Have you ever talked business strategy with Governor Romney? He was very interested in what Harvard and I could do to help during the time when he was governor of Massachusetts. Are you surprised to hear him attacking your business acumen? No. You shouldn’t work in Washington if you are not prepared to become an object of symbolic attack. My recollection is that in his highly successful business career, Governor Romney did a fair amount of job-destroying at a number of companies that his firm purchased. [Newsweek]
Those of you who’ve seen The Social Network know there is a scene in which Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (AKA The Winklevi) go to Larry Summers, the then president of Harvard, to complain that Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for Facebook. In the movie, Summers is portrayed as a bit of a dick, essentially telling the Winks to fuck off and go waste someone else’s time. Was the portrayal accurate, Summers was asked this morning? Hell yeah it was. And you want to know another thing? Big Lar doesn’t regret for one second telling those little shits to get out of his office. Read more »
They haven’t had nice things to say about him over the past year and a half. Called him McSleeps a lot and, oh, the jokes about his Diet Coke consumption came fast and furiously. But now that he’s announced he’s taking off, suddenly the business community wants the lovable schlub back, according to Charlie Gasparino. Apparently no one wants ot live in a world without Big Lar. Read more »
The White House chief of staff is reportedly taking a page from Siesta Boy’s playabook and planning an exit in the next couple months, according to Bloomberg.
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