The Summers Factor
Conor Clarke writes that Barack Obama should listen more closely to what Larry Summers was saying about fiscal stimulus before the election. Congressman Peter DeFazio, by contrast, says Summers is the problem:
In some ways, I think both sides are right. The decision to squeeze infrastructure spending in favor of tax cuts isn’t a great idea. And it’s made worse by the fact that the tax cuts aren’t nearly as well-targeted as Summers’ pre-election advice would have suggested. There’s some good infrastructure money in the draft I’ve seen, and some good tax cut stuff in the draft I’ve seen (pertaining to the child tax credit and “making work pay”) but there’s too much in the way of poorly targeted business tax cuts hanging around. It would make more sense to divert that money in either direction.
28 Responses to “The Summers Factor”
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January 24th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Add to that commentary that pre-conceeding some ‘tax cuts’ for Republicans has neither brought them onboard to support the bill nor silenced their calls for greater tax cuts in general.
January 24th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Who do you trust? A bunch of non-expert voters, with hidden agendas, represented by guys like DeFazio or the intelligent, liberal, and well-educated (check out his CV!) , Larry Summers.
Progressive should support him because he knows what he is talking about and is ideologically liberal. Conservatives should support him because he is apolitical and ignores the most ugly forms of liberalism.
And really what malicious reasons would Summers have to oppose infrastructure?
January 24th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I can’t tell if gekko is being facetious or not. Some help?
January 24th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I can’t tell if gekko is being facetious or not. Some help?
Based on Gekko’s past commentary, I’d say “not.”
January 24th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
John,
Ha! I get your point but I wrote it in all seriousness. I guess I just can’t understand why some progressives hate this guy.
January 24th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
The reason progressives hate Summers is that deep-down, Summers economic theory is not very progressive.
One could argue that Summer’s economic policy is conservative (i.e. – free-trade, ant-union, anti-worker), but he tries to make up for it through support of government sponsored programs to help those hurt by his own theories. He is essentially a Kaus-style liberal.
Supports plutocrats, but also feels for those trampled on by the plutocracy.
January 24th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
For a supposedly smart guy, Summers does a lot of stupid things.
The easiest and most direct way to determine what is required is to project full employment GDP versus current forecast GDP and then determine the amount required fill the gap.
The financial sector will be contracting (as well it should) and therefore provision must be made to replace that output.
January 24th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Ron, the things he does aren’t stupid. They are corrupt and classist. Summers only wants to get more goodies for his friends and his children, and lock everyone else out of all opportunities beyond being the manager of wal-mart.
People like summers see only one kind of future they want for America: One where only the wealthy matter and everyone else exist to serve them.
January 24th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Progressive should support him because he knows what he is talking about and is ideologically liberal.
Liberal? Summers is among the few really responsible for the current economic collapse: Reagan, Greenspan, Bush(x2), Rubin… All those guys who imposed the “Washington consensus” on the world, only to see it all collapse.
Including Summers as one of his top economic advisers is another proof that Obama had some very frightening friends in Chicago indeed: the U of C free-market fanatic hacks.
January 24th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
They are corrupt and classist. Summers only wants to get more goodies for his friends and his children, and lock everyone else out of all opportunities beyond being the manager of wal-mart.
I’ve haven’t followed Summers’s career especially closely, but aside from saying the occasional stupid thing (and that’s hardly proof he’s not a liberal), I’ve always thought he was a pretty solid advocate for social democracy. Yes, it’s free market social democracy he favors, but he’s not advocating anything not on display in, say, Finland or Denmark, right? Indeed you’d hardly expect to find daylight between Summers and Krugman, for that matter, on issues of economic policy. What am I missing?
January 24th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Natalie Angier of the New York Times recently wrote, “In ‘Geek Chic’ and Obama, New Hope for Lifting Women in Science,” which is the usual, but with one difference. Over the last four years, in practically all of these articles demanding more women get hired as professors of physics, former Harvard president Larry Summers would come in for some ritual denunciating.
But, now, there’s no mention of Larry. Why not?
Because The One has chosen him. So, Larry’s 2005 heresy has disappeared down the Memory Hole. Obama addicts can’t handle cognitive dissonance, so Larry’s cognitive dissidence shall never be spoken of again.
“We have never been at war with Larry Summersasia!”
January 24th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Summers = arrogant blowhard, imo.
January 24th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Summers = arrogant blowhard, imo.!!!
January 24th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Why does the H.R. 5 stimulus budget have all these poorly-focused tax cuts when Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. is blocking the hiring tax credit?!?
Is Schumer the new Lieberman, with his stance on the capital gains rate for hedge fund managers? He hasn’t said anything about returning to the sanity of the short-term/long-term capital gains tax rate split, perhaps because the NYSE profits from day trader gambling; retirement investment be damned? Why hasn’t he come out against the Fed paying interest on excess reserves?
January 26th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
What soullite said. That somebody like Summers can pass as a liberal in this country these days is part of the problem. All he does is packaging the class war he promotes in terms that brainwashed upper middle class pseudo-liberals recognize, without making any difference in substance.
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