Larry Summers the odds-on favorite in bets for Fed chair; Yellen lags

[Cali_Democrat]

Well this is interesting.

By Ann Saphir
SAN FRANCISCO | Tue Aug 13, 2013 3:04pm EDT


(Reuters) - Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers has the inside track in the race to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve, betting at a popular online bookmaker suggests.

On Tuesday, Irish bookmaker Paddy Power offered odds of 1/2 for Summers. That translates to a view that Summers has about a 48 percent chance of being the next Fed chair, a spokesman for the firm said.

Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen was priced at 2/1 against, meaning that successful punters would win two pounds for every one staked. Put another way, prices suggest Yellen has about a 24 percent chance at landing the top spot at the U.S. central bank.

At Paddy Power, there are 2,000 pounds at stake with 50 unique bets placed -- a small market compared with, say, bets placed on the name of the Royal baby or a standard football match, but a "decent size" market compared with other financial markets, the spokesman said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/13/us-usa-fed-fedchair-bets-idUSBRE97C0SO20130813

It appears Wall Street wants Janet Yellen as next Fed chair, not Summers.

Wall Street wants Yellen, not Summers, as next Fed chief


<...>

Participants, who include economists, traders and strategists, say monetary policy expertise is the most important quality for a new Fed chairman.

<...>

Asked to judge the two supposed front-runners on these qualities, Yellen beat Summers in seven of 10 categories, including four of the top five.


In fact, Yellen got much higher grades from the Street on monetary policy expertise and concern about unemployment, which is a major issue for President Obama. Summers is seen having more respect from international leaders, greater concern about inflation and a higher level of financial market expertise.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100917426

It appears Obama would be bucking Wall Street if he appoints Summers as next Fed chief. Isn't this what people want? Don't people actually want Obama to buck Wall Street?

[msongs]

1. obama's appointees reflect his own core beliefs and values nt

[Cali_Democrat]

2. Wall Street wants Yellen, not Summers.

[pa28]

3. I'm glad the survey participants recognized Summer's long history of malfeasance.

A track record of failure as spectacular as Larry's deserves special acknowledgement.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. From what I understand

He would first have to be appointed to a seat as a governor (with Senate confirmatin required) before even being selected as a chair (another confirmation). Yellen is already vice-chair.

[Safetykitten]

5. it's been all over for a long time. The caterers know it will be him.

[whatchamacallit]

6. Ah... so THIS will be apologist talking point

Last edited Fri Aug 16, 2013, 04:36 PM - Edit history (1)

"Obama isn't appointing a plutocrat vulture, he's bucking Wall Street.

[Cali_Democrat]

7. Correct

The talking points were delivered this morning.

[Igel]

8. Summers helped with Obama's campaign.

He has been involved in consulting and advising.

Yellen has not, at least not to anything like the same extent and she wasn't involved in his campaign.

I think Summers had the edge.

Obama strikes me as a man who values his own judgment far more than others' even if they have more experience and knowledge. If he knows somebody who's qualified and trusts him that will trump exceptional qualifications on the part of a stranger. The sheer number of superlative evaluations reflected on Yellen's CV might be enough for Obama to set aside his own judgment. But since Summers was loyal to him, personally, in helping get him elected, he's Obama's man ... Summers has a good shot.

[cali]

9. No. People don't want Summers because of his history

sorry you have a problem reading.

[Octafish]

10. More Kabuki! They're both great for Wall Street.

Six of Janet Yellen or Half-Dozen of Larry Summers?

By Ezra Klein
Bloomberg, Aug 1, 2013 9:37 AM ET

The strangest part of the increasingly bitter shadow campaign for chairman of the Federal Reserve is that the contest is not really about monetary policy. It’s about financial regulation.

The two leading candidates for the job are Janet Yellen, the current vice chairman of the Fed, and Larry Summers, the former Treasury secretary and an economics adviser to President Barack Obama. When it comes to monetary policy, they don’t differ drastically. Both support the Fed policy to maintain low interest rates and continue asset purchases -- no premature “tapering” -- until unemployment falls significantly.

SNIP...

Yellen, meanwhile, has little record on these issues. Her supporters seem to prefer her mostly because she’s not Summers. “The question is whether you are prepared to beat up on the banks, yes or no,” said Dean Baker, president of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research. “If no, then everything else doesn’t matter. With Summers you’re picking someone you know is not. I don’t know that Yellen is prepared to, either. But there’s reason for hope that Yellen would be stronger on regulating finance.”

The criticism of Yellen is that -- like Bernanke and Alan Greenspan before her -- regulating banks simply isn’t something she’s terribly interested in. She’s at the Federal Reserve because she’s an excellent monetary economist. There’s little evidence she wants to spend her time watching over hedge funds. Her heart may be in the right place; her priorities might not be.

CONTINUED MISERY...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-01/six-of-janet-yellen-or-half-dozen-of-larry-summers-.html

Continue the Trickle Down misery.

[octoberlib]

11. Summers was one of those responsible for all the deregulation which led to the recession.

Not to mention the fact he's stated publicly that women are genetically inferior to men and third world countries should be used as toxic waste dumps. What a total piece of shit.


http://www.salon.com/2013/07/24/sexist_larry_summers_will_destroy_the_economy/

Summers’ true position on monetary policy is more conjectural (actually a problem when putting someone into a position of running monetary policy). But there’s no question that, on financial regulation, Larry Summers has perhaps the worst track record of any major economic figure in America. And the Federal Reserve plays a key role, perhaps the primary role, in regulating banks. Led by point person Daniel Tarullo, the Fed has recently doubled leverage requirements for the largest financial institutions. It’s hard not to see the Summers pick as designed to babysit Tarullo, and blunt any policies that come down hard on the banks. Tarullo and Summers are personally close, but Summers typically listens to his own set of sources on financial regulation – the ones in the very expensive suits – and this has had disastrous consequences for over 15 years.

In the 1990s, Summers and then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin led the effort to stop Brooksley Born from regulating derivatives, precisely the financial instruments that magnified the housing bubble and accelerated the financial collapse. Under his watch as treasury secretary, Congress eliminated Glass-Steagall’s firewall between commercial and investment banks, legalizing the merger of Citigroup (where Rubin would serve as director, senior counsel and Board Chairman). He further oversaw passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which banned all regulation of derivatives, even from state anti-gambling laws. Even Bill Clinton has apologized for deregulation of the riskiest sector in finance; Summers has not. Even well after the crisis, in 2011, Summers pronounced himself “more cautious than many about constraining financial innovation,” a not-so-thinly veiled code for encouraging a return to casino activity on Wall Street.