Summers to Head National Economic Counsel

[girl gone mad]

From ABC News:

ABC News has learned that President-elect Obama has decided to name former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers the director of the National Economic Council, essentially the president's senior economic adviser.

Part of the Executive Office of the President, the NEC was created for the purpose of advising the President on matters related to U.S. and global economic policy. The NEC has four functions, by executive order: ensuring that programs and policy decisions are consistent with the President's economic goals, monitoring the implementation of the President's economic policy agenda, coordinating policy-making for domestic and international economic issues, and coordinating economic policy advice for the President.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Not good...

:banghead: :banghead:

[lamp_shade]

2. Good !!

[MamaDem]

3. Agreed! nt

[JohnWxy]

4. Great news.. smart guy!

[Odin2005]

5. Has a tendincy of opening his mouth at the wrong times, though.

I've heard somewhere that he may have Asperger's Syndrome, which, since I know for myself since I am an "Aspie", would explain his lack of tact...

[IrateCitizen]

8. His tendency is for pushing misguided policies, as well

See post #7, below.

[girl gone mad]

6. Smart enough to push for massive financial deregulation.

An outspoken and ardent support of Gramm-Leach-Bliley. A sexist who thinks women make for sub-par scientists and mathmeticians.

A regular Einstein, he is.

:eyes:

[IrateCitizen]

7. Summers' history in economic policy...

1. While chief economist at the World Bank, he argued in favor of exporting polluting industries to less-industrialized countries, because they had more room to absorb pollution than industrialized nations. :puke:

2. While deputy at Treasury under Bob Rubin -- he, Rubin and Greenspan teamed up against Brooksley Born, a high-level Fed economist who was sounding an alarm about the dangers of trading in derivatives. These three pilloried Born in public and ran her out of town. Summers, specifically, charged that Born's actions were threatening to ruin the economy. :puke: :puke:

3. As another poster already noted, he was a champion of the act that deregulated the financial industry and essentially repealed Glass-Steagall. :puke: :puke: :puke:

4. His most recent job has been as a high-level hedge fund manager. He's a consummate Wall Street insider. :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

Basically, if you want the kind of thinking that helped get us into this mess, then perhaps the only two people better suited for the job than Larry Summers are Alan Greenspan and Bob Rubin.