For the Record, No: A Review Too Late
Were Lawrence Summers what his critics say he is—a political hack with an inflated sense of his own skills that is matched only by his sense of entitlement, accompanied by a grotesquely non-realistic view of his accomplishments—this is precisely the letter he would write.
Felix, who was The Voice of Reason on this before and after, has more.
(h/t DeLong; subtitle blatantly “borrowed” from WalterJon)
Ken:
If someone took the time to read the citations within your brief post, I think they would arrive at a similar conclusion. This is a good post as it gives a review of Summers and Obama’s thrust to make him the Fed Chief.
Who could forget his words in testimony to Congress on Brooksley Bornes’s efforts to bring regualtion to an otherwise hidden market or shadow as some have called it. It was 1998(?) when Lawrence spoke these words:
“casting a shadow of regulatory uncertainty over an otherwise thriving market.”
This coming after the fall of LTCM also in 1998 when Lawrence as well at others should have learned from this lession of financial engineering and leveraging. e forged ahead at full steam “damn the ice bergs” only to learn the rivets holding the steel of our economy were both to brittle to sustain the crash.
As to Summers’s letter, two words . . . “Meretricious Spittle.”