Dr. Lawrence H. Summers to leave WH
The NYT reports that
Dr. Lawrence H. Summers, Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, announced his plans to return to his position as University Professor at Harvard University at the end of the year.
Dr. Summers is the chief White House advisor to the President on the development and implementation of economic policy. He also leads the President’s daily economic briefing.
Who’s left from the original economic crew?
I know he is reputed to have a great mind for policy. Perhaps. But it seems pretty clear that the policy he is responsible for came from his gut. Everything the guy has touched seems to turn to [the repeal of glass-steagall; Harvard endowment under his reign; American economy w/ a too-small stimulus; etc]…
Good riddance. Tho perhaps too late. Things do stink to high heaven.
jimi’s extraneous comment deleted
Geithner is left and since his is a confirmed position and no one will ever be confirmed for this administration again he isn’t going anywhere.
Thank you.
The rats are jumping ship. If you want advice on how to pillage a society Larry makes the short list.
Please, Summers was always gone much like Clinton’s JC leftovers were gone by 1995.
From what I am hearing, Geithner is dead as well. I don’t think confirmation really matters.
The average tenure as NEC director is 2.125 years. Summers will come in at just under 2 years, if he leaves at the end of 2010. So the “sinking ship” thing doesn’t really work. Similarly,the top job at OMB, since the Carter administration, has an average tenure of 1.6 years, so Orszag made it a little longer than average.
I know it’s fun to let your bias be your guide, but there is nothing special about heavy staff turn-over at the midterm.
Doesn’t get past Ocham. Don’t need amature body-language analysis to explain Summers’ departure. Even if the body language bit is accurate, the attribution is speculative. If Summers is in good stead, one failed trip would not cost him a job. He isn’t responsible for what China decides. No step in this explanation is sturdy enough to be useful.
All wrapped up in the first comment to this article: http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2010/09/free-trade-and-green-jobs.html
We have an explanation of why parts of the stimulus has failed to stimulate the US economy. Why that part of the stimulus have failed to add US jobs. Why Summers failure in China was pre-ordained.
“It hasn’t gone un-noticed, particularly by those in Congress. When Stimulous II came along, notably absent was any aditional subsidies for green energy. There was an article on this subject in the Washington Times (I realize not an exceptional source but worth a read.) http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/9/green-jobs-no-longer-golden-in-stimulus/print/
Here is an interesting excerpt:
“The Department of Energy estimated that 82,000 jobs have been created and has acknowledged that as much as 80 percent of some green programs, including $2.3 billion of manufacturing tax credits, went to foreign firms that employed workers primarily in countries including China, South Korea and Spain, rather than in the United States.
Peter Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland, said much of the green stimulus funding was “squandered.”…”
YMMV, but it is pretty concise description of how misdirected the stimulus has been.
Actually there is a much simpler explaination. Summers can take 2 years off from Harvard and still retain his tenure there. More than 2 years and he has to resign the job. Many predicted this and Romers departure based upon the tenure rules. Summers can make more dough by being a consultant to various folks also. (Consulting is allowed at universities)
Summers has to be back at Harvard by January to retain tenure.
The premise of CoRev’s statement “assumes facts not in evidence” as the lawyers say. CoRev claims that some parts of the stimulus plan have failed, but mainstream, non-partisan estimates find that ARRA overall did lead to higher output and employment than would otherwise have been the case. I don’t know that any mainstream, non-partisan estimates are available for the alternative energy part of ARRA, but unless we have such estimates, there is no reason to believe those parts of ARRA were slack on helping output and job creation.
CoRev has made it a habit of claiming failure for Obama’s policies, without actually being able to show the claimed failure. All part of the schtick when you are working for the opposing side in politics.
Rdan,
How many tax cheats were propsed for Obama Administration and how many actually served in the Obama Administration?
Do you care? Hell no you don’t care! You probably don’t even know the answer!
Keep exposing your hypocracy, just adds to the reinforcement!
kharris – “The premise of CoRev’s statement “assumes facts not in evidence“”
Where is your evidence? You didn’t back up your claims with any identified sources and linked information.
You do not appear to be aware of the following:
March 2010 – “This week, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced legislation that, if passed, would restrict any renewable energy project that uses less than 100% U.S. made components from receiving tax payer subsidies and grants.”
“Schumer and cosponsors Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA) and Jon Tester (D-MT) also wrote to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asking him to stop all grant payments from the ARRA until the “loophole” allowing foreign companies to apply for funding could be closed. The Senators also said that of the US $2 billion in program funds that have already been spent, 79% has gone to creating jobs overseas.”
Senate Proposal Could Hurt US Wind Industry
March 4, 2010
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/03/senate-proposal-could-hurt-us-wind-industry
You are apparently unaware also of any of the following information, including two investigative reports and Owne Herrnstadt’s recommendations outlined at EPI:
Foreign Firms Dominate Wind Energy in U.S., Land Stimulus Dollars
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/05/25/foreign-firms-dominate-wind-energy-in-u-s/
Overseas firms collecting most green energy money
October 29th, 2009
http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/investigations/wind-energy-funds-going-overseas/story/overseas-firms-collecting-most-green-energy-money/
Green jobs, with strings attached
by Owne Herrnstadt
Economic Policy Institute (EPI)
December 2, 2009
http://www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/green_jobs_with_strings_attached
Renewable energy money still going abroad, despite criticism from Congress
February 8th, 2010
Well, it may not be convincing, but Harvard rules require him to return or lose his tenured professorial position. I’m not sure when the deadline is. I know that I would think more than twice about turning away a tenured position at Harvard.
Great so who does Obama borrow next from Harvard? Maybe Henry Kissinger is ready to return to the fray – it would give us two nobel winners in the WH!
I think it’s gonna be Jamie Dimon, but maybe not. Lloyd got too unpopular mixing up issues like God and Man, Risk and Reward, Clients and Company Books, High Frequency Trading Computers and Real Investors…. so people would get nervous having him explain to the President how the world works. He will probably be needing a job soon, so I think Lloyd gets Jamie’s old job and Jamie goes to the White House.
Krugman took himself out the running this afternoon. It was either Krugman, DeLong or Thoma that appointed Alan Blinder, I forgot already, but Blinder is from Princeton and we don’t know if they have the same pension rules as Harvard. All of them said that the rumor that Obama wants a CEO from business in the spot is a bad idea. So I would conclude it is just a dumb rumor, except then I started getting paranoid again.
Larry Summers advised Boris Yeltsin that the Russian economy needed shock therapy. A quick and total imersion into the free market, was necessary for both future prosperity, as well as to prevent any future backsliding.
The privatization that Larry advised can best be discribed as gangster economics. Rich Western based mobsters funnelled monies to there cronies in the Soviet Union so they could buy all of the Soviet Union’s assests for pennies on the dollar.
After Yeltsin’s 1996 re election a half dozen rich oligarchs who funded him started laddleing up the dumplings. Khodorkovsky for instance was put in charge of auctioning off Yukos oil. With Jacob Rothschild’s help Khodorkovsky was able to then by 2 percent of the worlds oil reserves for a measly $ 159,000,000. We know Rothschild was the money man because Khodorkovsky signed Yokos oil over to him before he went to prison.
Other international mobsters, who are also above the law , Marc Rich and Scooter Libby were in on the rape of Russia as well. They all wanted Larry Summers to be on the job when despoilation of a nation is in the works. Heck of a job Larry.
Larry Summer can say that girls are too dumb to do math, and that Cornell West’s African American studies is a bunch of stupid mumbo jumbo, basically the same type thing John Rocker would say, but its ok cause Larry is our guy. Partisan politics at its finest.
google