Larry Summers Has Something To Say

Author:
Publish date:
Updated on

And it has nothing to do with the relative abilities of the sexes.

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said Tuesday that the government’s focus on short-term fiscal tightening, through tax increases and spending cuts, was hurting growth, constraining employment, and holding back the economic recovery.

Instead, he said, policy makers should be trying to lock in medium and long-term changes that reduce the deficit and ease some of the policies that have led the deficit to contract sharply in the near term….

He called for more investments in things like public infrastructure, like improvements to airports, roads and bridges to boost job growth. He said policy makers should take advantage of low-interest rates and the shortage of work in the construction sector. He acknowledged, though, that a lot of these investments can be difficult to sell politically.

But the great man will wait to weigh in on what Ben Bernanke's doing until Janet Yellen and Tim Geithner get passed over in favor of certain former Harvard presidents and—in case you had forgotten—Treasury secretaries.

“Old Treasury Secretary habits die hard and so I’m going to respect the independence of the Federal Reserve system and not make a statement about the …monetary policy right now,” Mr. Summers said.

Summers: U.S. Near-Term Austerity Hurting Growth [WSJ Washington Wire blog]

Related

News

Larry Summers Supposedly Too Rough Around The Edges To Be Named Fed Chairman

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. ...[Summers is] a serious economist who knows his numbers and has a worldview that is similar to the president’s. He would be expected to continue the loose money policy of Mr. Bernanke. But one of the knocks against Mr. Summers is that he has a reputation for not playing well with others. He has had his own run-ins with the president. And if you consider the Treasury secretary and Federal Reserve chairman as a tag team, you would have to be confident that whomever you pick for Treasury secretary would get along well with Mr. Summers. So he called some former students assholes. So he'll cut a bitch for getting between him and his steady stream of Diet Coke. So he chooses to sleep through co-workers' particularly boring presentations. So he makes female colleagues feel like "pieces of meat." So he shoots people unequivocal death stares that say, "I could have you killed and no one would find out" for the mere suggestion he might want to consider wearing socks. Is all that to say he's not an otherwise affable guy who'd make a fine workmate and prized addition to an office softball team? Casting Dual Roles At Treasury And The Fed [Dealbook]