Chairman Larry
It's being reported that Larry Summers is on President Obama's Very Short List of candidates to succeed Ben Bernanke as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve banking system.
Reasons in favor, presented by his supporters, are the 'intellectual energy and creativity' which Summers would bring to the role; an ability to "think outside the box". Plus, Larry has personal connections made after after a life in finance and economics, and at the fringes of politics (Translation: He's a Player, a BSD).
Other people, not so supportive of Larry, note that he's been at the center of minor scandals,
faux pas and 'errors in judgement' during his career; describe his personal demeanor as arrogant and insulting; they remember Summers was a major figure in creating the financial crisis that led to the 2008 Crash. They don't believe he should be considered as Bernanke's replacement.
But, Larry doesn't really care about any of that, and Obama may not, either.
Summers had been one of the 2008 Obama transition team's principal economic advisors -- Obama was going to shape a comprehensive economic stimulus package that Congress would accept... and which treated the Wall Street BSD's with proper respect.
Bringing Summers in to play fixer between his connections on Wall Street and in Congress to get the stimulus passed was a pragmatic move. When this post was written in April of 2010, Summers was being tapped by Obama to help draft reform of the U.S. banking and investment sector, for much the same reasons.
For more detail on Summers' role in the financial crisis, and why he should not be considered for employment at a Dairy Queen, let alone Fed Chairman, see the 2010 documentary,
Inside Job.
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Larry Summers, 2010 Gore Vidal-Look-alike Contest Runner-Up
Every time I see
Larry Summers,
he looks fatter. It's almost a parody of what being a BSD will get you,
or a reverse 'Portrait Of Dorian Grey': Public evidence of a corrupt
life worn in his face.
Summers has been over and under
and up and down, as the Sinatra song says, but has generally been a
King, not a Pawn. He's been one of Harvard's youngest tenured
professors; was on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers under
President Reagan from 1982-1983; and
was hired as Chief Economist for the
World Bank until 1993.
It was in a 1991 interview that Larry said,
"There are no... limits to the carrying capacity of the earth that are
likely to bind any time in the foreseeable future. There isn't a risk of
an apocalypse due to global warming or anything else. The idea that we
should put limits on growth because of some natural limit, is a profound
error and one that, were it ever to prove influential, would have
staggering social costs."
It was at the World Bank that
Larry later wrote a 1993 memo, later leaked to the press, in which he said, "the
economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage
country is impeccable and we should face up to that . . . I've always
thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly
underpolluted".
Larry claimed the remark was 'sarcasm' and was taken out
of context (tough to imagine anyone outside the Koch Brothers, Rick Perry or Lard Boy making such a remark). But with the World Bank memo, as in so many other reported events in his public life, I don't think Summers cared what anyone thought; Fuck 'em. Summers has always generated more than a reasonable share of controversy, rooted in what appears an abrasive and arrogant personality.
Larry
served as Deputy Secretary, and later Secretary of the Treasury, during the Clinton administration's second term. Summers was successful in
pushing for capital gains tax cuts. During the California energy crisis
of 2000
(when the state was struggling to find enough electricity, while companies like SoCal Edison and PG&E claimed California's strict environmental laws around energy production hampered their ability to produce power), then-Treasury Secretary Summers teamed with Alan Greenspan and
Enron executive Kenneth Lay to lecture California Governor Gray Davis on
the causes of the crisis.
They agreed with the power companies, and saw the problem lay in excessive
government regulation. Under the advice of Kenneth Lay, Summers urged
Davis to reassure 'the markets' by relaxing California's environmental standards around energy production, specifically regarding coal or oil-fired power plants.
Davis took the advice; California deregulated it's electricity markets. This directly benefited large-scale power producers -- and directly benefited Lay's company, Enron, by removing any cap on the price of electricity, which is bought and sold in the U.S. like any other commodity.
Remember Enron? A company led, as Federal prosecutions and civil suits later documented, by leeches and criminals? Remember the
recorded conversations between Enron's energy traders, laughing -- because
the deregulation Summers and Lay convinced Davis to back allowed Enron to buy
California's own electricity, and sell it
back to California -- at inflated prices?
Summers
supported the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, which lifted more than
six decades of restrictions against banks offering commercial banking,
insurance, and investment services by repealing key provisions in the
1933 Glass-Steagall Act. Summers also pushed heavily for deregulation
of the derivatives contracts market.
All
of that led directly to the current economic disaster we're
experiencing, by the way. Without a firewall to keep banks out of
other financial businesses, and investment houses out of the
banking business;
without regulation of that fundamental change, and without regulation of the derivatives market ... you end
up with a Finance and Investment center that can do almost whatever it wants, followed by a Crash that damages hundreds of millions of lives.
But, they're just Little People, after all; no one Larry has to answer to, so he doesn't have to give it a moment's thought. But in my opinion, his responsibility in all that happened and for the consequent damage done to the lives of others seems documented and clear.
The Nation's Financial Future Bores Larry: Nothing In It For Him
After "Lil' Boots" Bush was appointed Leader, Larry became President of Harvard -- until forced to resign in 2006, after a series of issues and grievances exploded into a no-confidence vote from a
majority of the Harvard faculty.
It seems Summers had made dismissive comments
about the value of women in the faculty, had tried to fire an African-American professor
for spending time working on a particular Democrat's presidential
candidacy (which Summers didn't support); and, Summers showed favoritism to a visiting instructor because, at least in my opinion, there
was an economic benefit for him to do so.
In short, he continued to behave as he had earlier in life; no surprise there. Finally, Larry had to resign.
Now,
Larry is the principal member of the Obama Administration's Economic
Advisory Council. President Obama is expecting him to work on...
reforming the investment and banking industry.
Right.
Summers
has recently come under fire for accepting perks from Citigroup,
including free rides on its corporate jet in 2008. After the economic
stimulus legislation was passed in early 2009, Larry called Senator
Chris Dodd and asked him to remove caps on executive pay at firms that
received stimulus money, including Citigroup.
Later
that year, it was disclosed that Summers has been paid approximately $7.7 million in fees from various
Wall Street companies which received government bailout money -- and which, arguably, are affected by government policy he helps to shape as a public
servant -- sort of a classic Conflict Of Interest.
What a guy. Thanks for everything, Larry; millions of people are barely treading water -- but
you got yours, huh? So I guess it's okay. The interesting thing is,
you're two years younger than I am, and man; I look in
way better shape.
Hee
hee hee hee hee hee. But, then, I'm a Dog, and this means I'm only
eight years old in a human timeframe. However, Larry can't bark very
well, and possibly spends less time licking potentially embarrasing
areas of his body in public.
Mongo In The Early Years
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(There's also this observation about Summers, from October, 2011, during the #Occupy events -- seems like so long ago, now, doesn't it?)
At
Media Matters,
Ari Rabin-Havt recently posted an article
entitled , "We Need A New System", which began with recounting a
friend's arrival in Washington, D.C. in 2000 -- eleven years ago, at the height of
protests in front of a scheduled meeting of the World Bank.
From the back seat of a taxi, Rabin-Havt's friend saw one of the protestors, a woman, wearing a T-Shirt with the slogan
We Need A New System!
-- and the friend just happened to attend a dinner party that night,
with " 'ambassadors, politicians, esteemed professors and what seemed
like the entire combined senior economist staff of the IMF, World Bank
and Treasury' ", including Larry Summers.
The friend recounted seeing the woman protesting the World Bank meeting; it turned out Summers had seen her, too -- he'd even
spoken with her.
And
so I asked the girl [Summers recounted to the other guests]: 'What is
this new system that you want? Tell me about it!' And the girl had
nothing. Nothing! She had no fucking clue what this magical new system
was supposed to be. No one is saying that there aren't problems with the
world economy the way it is today. But these kids out there -- they
don't know what they want!
Rabin-Havt's
friend then said to Summers
[emphasis added],
"You've got 50 economics PhDs in this room
who pretty much run the world economy. And you're asking that girl for a
better system? Aren't the solutions your job? You admit billions are
living in hell, but it's up to that girl to fix it?"
Summers chuckled and walked away.