Comments on: Did Larry Summers fire derivatives whistleblower at Harvard

By: Dr. N

Dr. N — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 06:20:03 +0000

Sounds like President Obama would be well served by hiring Iris Mack and Brooksley Born to his economic team to balance Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers (Team of Rivals anyone?)…. he's getting the wallstreet line currently.

By: Worried in Texas

Worried in Texas — Sat, 16 May 2009 23:12:57 +0000

Summers role in the financial debacle is the great untold story. Considering he scripted out a financial panic in an NBER volume you wonder what he was thinking in 2000. Or at least I do. This is one of Obama's really poor appointments. I wonder if this guy isn't going to run out of lives just when Obama needs a convincing voice for patience and integrity in reregulating the financial markets?

By: Worried in Texas

Worried in Texas — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:12:57 +0000

By: Worried in Texas

Worried in Texas — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:12:57 +0000

By: Edward Harrison

Edward Harrison — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:10:28 +0000

fsteele,

I addressed your concerns in the links this morning by making clear that there is NO evidence that Larry Summers was involved in the firing of this employee. I may change the post title to suit as it is misleading.

Nevertheless, I do have questions here about lack of oversight and how this represents an ideological bent for Summers which is now causing President Obama problems.

As Terry points out, American voters do not understand the need to continue in that direction. While Tim Geithner has already made a first salvo toward regulation-heavy to fix things, other aspects of Obama’s economic policies call the regulatory bona fides of the Administration into question because they seem to favour Wall Street over Main Street.

I is still early days and the mid-term election is not for a while but I see things playing out like this:

problems with the bailouts (autos and banks) make clear the difference in treatment of the two sectors. reporters start harping on the deregulatory zeal of Summers and others from Clinton days. Obama is unable to distance himself from this association given the differential treatment and the sweetheart deal for hedge funds in Geithner’s plan. This taints Obama and the Democrats generally.

Simultaneously, economic weakness continues. Democrats lose their change lustre and get a beating in the mid-term elections.

Now, purely from a political perspective, what Obama SHOULD be doing is showing he means business regarding Wall Street with, at a minimum ceremonial public moves (prosecutions, firing of executives, perp walks). Jawboning won’t work.

People are beginning to become suspicious as to whether Obama, Summers, and Geithner want to change anything in financial services. I don’t think they do. And, if the American people don’t as well, you are going to see trouble in 2010.

By: Terry

Terry — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:32:43 +0000

I am simply amazed that Pres. Obama can’t (or won’t) see through the way Summers and Geithner are handling American taxpayer money to the benefit of Wall Street insiders. At least at a political level, he should understand that the “Geithner Plan” is likely to cost him dearly in next year’s Congressional elections–even in a battle with a totally discombobulated Republican Party. As the late Tip O’Neil used to say: “All politics are local.” In the end, Americans will pick their next Congress (especially the House) based on the performance of the economy in their district–not how well Wall Street fat cats are doing. And the prospects for the American economy through next year are dim at best. Obama could be in for a much larger than normal off-year Congressional party shift.

By: Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:00:04 +0000

Appreciate bringing this to public attention. This is the kind of thing that would have been kept quiet from the general public before the availability of information dissemination tools like blogs. Few would have had access to the Crimson, and fewer would have taken an interest in bringing it to public attention.

By: fsteele

fsteele — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:25:14 +0000

Summers’ disregard of such warnings may be fair game. But please do not blow this up into a personal level accusation — such as suggesting he ‘fired’ Mack. That is a whole different level of discourse, which is not worthy of your blog.

By: Edward Harrison

Edward Harrison — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 03:04:50 +0000

I do intend to blow it up into something more. Implicit in the coverage of this event is a recognition that Summers promoted this kind of reckless derivatives activity without the necessary controls.

This was certainly part of the problem and Summers is as blameworthy as any.

“Bring back Clinton’s Treasury Secretary Larry Summers — and the Clinton economy of the 90s?”

The Clinton years were a false prosperity built on leverage and debt.

By: fsteele

fsteele — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 02:59:41 +0000

HMC fired her for writing TO Summers.

Criticize Summers for not heeding her advice, but don’t blow it up into something more.