Comments on: The smart and charming Larry Summers

By: midwesttype

midwesttype — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:02:36 +0000

I took one micro class and I could spout that chatter. What I find disturbing about the remarks Summers made about women as president of Harvard is that it shows you something about what his mind does at rest–what kind of speculation he engages in. Well, and that fact that he thinks so highly of himself that he would say it out loud, although I suppose it’s better that we know that about him than have it be the kind of conversation he only engages in while safely ensconced in the old boys clubhouse.

What bothers me about Obama is that the above didn’t bother him.

By: TinyOne

TinyOne — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:44:08 +0000

Because clearly, the primary failing in public education is a lack of fresh paint in classrooms. What a nitwit.

By: Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:54:33 +0000

He comments seem to come down to two fundamental points:

Throw money at infrastructure improvements – Did that in 2009 (although not well, IMHO). It’s not clear if it did any good at all, and certainly not clear if it could help bring about sustained growth anytime in the next decade.

We can grow our way out of the debt problem – It’s possible, though it will be a long time if ever before we see the growth levels of the latter part of the 1990s. And until we do, it seems prudent to make an effort to bring some of the structural debt under control.

By: Uncle_Billy

Uncle_Billy — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 06:52:03 +0000

At least Pet Rocks never denigrated women.

By: maynardGkeynes

maynardGkeynes — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 04:44:16 +0000

Brilliant? That’s cocktail chatter, and not particularly original cocktail chatter.

By: hsvkitty

hsvkitty — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:00:11 +0000

Thanks Foppe and jalefkowit for being both on point and witty.

By: FBlair

FBlair — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:59:12 +0000

“Doesn’t it strike you as odd that, now that he’s out of the WH, he’s suddenly seen the light? Because I truly find it amazingly coincidental that, now that he no longer has a position within the administration — where he would have been expected to turn such beliefs into policy positions — he is suddenly telling everyone that it’s all about “jobs, stupid”.

Actually, it’s pretty clear that this is what he was saying inside the administration from the beginning. The fact that Summers didn’t get his way is not a strike against him.

By: AndrewBW

AndrewBW — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:20:09 +0000

A day late and a dollar short.

By: alea

alea — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:18:53 +0000

“If you look at the price earnings ratio for technology companies relative to the price earnings ratios for all industrial companies, you take that ratio, PE technology divided by PE industrial, you can plot that ratio over the last 40 years, and it is at the lowest point that it’s ever been.”
quite right, except for 2001 to 2003 when techs had no E

By: Publius

Publius — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:13:11 +0000

There are many types of intelligence. There are many types of courage. Larry’s intelligence seems to be of the rational type, not the emotional or relational or managerial intelligence that succeeds politically (in the best sense).

When I read about the way he treated Austan Goolsby in “Overhaul” (written by an admiring Rattner, no less) I thought, “What a jerk!” Funny no one else picked up on that.

Summers strikes me as someone who punches well below his weight (heh). One-on-one he can be charming and persuasive. But take his proposals out into the daylight and they fade away like smoke in the wind.

I think I’ll start calling him “Saruman.”

By: jalefkowit

jalefkowit — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:54:52 +0000

“Far and away the larger risk is that we will make the mistakes of 1937, and that we will not have a recovery that is sustained, that we will make the mistakes that Japan made, and that we will have a decade or two of stagnation. The right question to be focused on is how to stimulate demand.”

Wow. If only he had been in a position to do something about that! Oh, wait.

By: Foppe

Foppe — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:41:47 +0000

And more to the point: do you see Larry admitting any kind of personal involvement in creating the mess he is now ready to lead everyone out of?
Because I didn’t see that in his first op/ed in the FT either. All he said there was “hey, look, this is the real problem. And I know how to solve it (now).”
I find it a bit disappointing that you’re willing to let him get away with that by calling him “charming” here — notwithstanding your second paragraph.

By: Foppe

Foppe — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:05:14 +0000

Doesn’t it strike you as odd that, now that he’s out of the WH, he’s suddenly seen the light? Because I truly find it amazingly coincidental that, now that he no longer has a position within the administration — where he would have been expected to turn such beliefs into policy positions — he is suddenly telling everyone that it’s all about “jobs, stupid”.
Put differently: it seems to me that he’s trying to confuse his future biographers.