Larry Summers is out for head of the Fed
Summers was forced to withdraw by a bunch of Democrats who didn’t like Obama’s pick. As far as I can see, there were three reasons for this:
(1) Summers had been insufficiently in favor of financial regulation during the 90s.
(2) He had deeply angered feminists by his Harvard speech about the lack of women at the highest levels of science (I covered this in some detail at the time; see the bottom three posts in this list; the summary version is that I think there was nothing wrong with what Summers said).
(3) From all the rumors I’ve ever heard, Summers tends to rub a great many people the wrong way.
But it was the combination of numbers one and two above that really hurt his chances. Summers is both insufficiently ideologically pure and feminists have had it in for him since at least 2005. What’s more, there’s an available woman for the job to champion, Janet Yellen.
Actually, it was a surprise to me that Obama picked Summers in the first place. Reports now are that Obama is angry at being crossed. I’ll make a prediction, although not one I feel all that strongly about: if his nose is really out of joint about this, Obama won’t choose Yellen either. He’ll go for some third person, one who’s ideologically more to the left and perhaps even a woman, but not Yellen.
It would even be more fun if he picked a man instead of Yellen. I think he’s vindictive enough to do that.
If so, pass the popcorn…
WHen i look for a superior indicator, i never look at qualifications, i only have to ask, is a womans pudenda involved.
then i know, by that alone, that this is the best there (is allowed) to be. any better, better not show up, as nothing is better than pudendas on parade..
hey, what we got was affirmative action medical people, affirmative action politicans, and on and on. maybe SOME of them are qualified, but given the directio society was going UNTIL the rise, i doubt it.
we will NEVER know if they have the chops!!!
we just assume it, under the power of pudenda
by the way, if they were just as good as what was before, then we could have at least gone stagnant, but over 40 years, we have seen collapse of more than one population about to hit, invlation about to celebrate weimar proportions, communism as an alternative, nationalization of most of the country, laws being proposed to abridge our constitutional rights, and on and on…
so much for better…
it dont really matter since the only people who seem to care are those who gave their power away!!!
The word “petulant” comes to mind. Not a bad guess. I think the guy is going to have a meltdown before he heads off to the wonderfully profitable world of speechmaking.
I wonder what would have happened if Summers had said that women were vastly underrepresented in the mental and penal instutions because they just weren’t crazy or criminal enough. Would the feminist have been outraged at such a sexist comment?
Your comment in the last paragraph that Obama feels crossed and won’t choose Yellen I think is on target.
There seemed to me a lot of people towards the political left for whom gender is very important and who were maybe too clever by half thinking they had Obama boxed in by going after Summers.
Whether Summers or Yellen they’re so close in thinking. They both believe manipulating the unit of account and/or the act of spending money itself (aside from what it’s being spent on) creates values and ‘stimulates’ economic growth.
Both believed that when the house prices went up we needed more government to subsidize home ownership for minorities and poor people, and then when the market corrected things bringing prices down the call was (same people) for more government to keep prices up (in form of lower interest rates, QE, etc).
I agree with Neo’s #2:
Professor Elizabeth Warren’s revenge for his political incorrectness?
Obama seems to a fixed on a plan to compensate for his legislative failures by appointing doctrinaire leftists to key appointments. These can do immense damage (see Lois Lerner) as they have only loyalty to the cause to answer to.
Don’t forget the Cornell West thing. Summers probably doesn’t have many friends in the rap crowd either.
I don’t trust Obama to appoint any one who is competent.
I was surprised at Obama’s choosing Summers, too, N-Neocon. I’ve liked the guy since he pissed off the usual hordes as prez of Harvard. Very unusual in an Ivy League top guy.
Artyd: “…nothing is better than pudendas on parade..” Okay, Kid, ya FINALLY got me!! ROTFLMAO..!!
You missed it: the Fed is a collegial ’round table.’
Arrogant intellectual dictators are loathed. The various members of ‘the peerage’ have fantastic clout back home — as in direct access to their Senators and Representatives.
THAT’S where the ‘kick’ came from.
These power brokers made it clear that under no uncertain terms, Summers was a man that could never be suffered. He’d give the regional bankers the ‘high hat’ and that would be that.
Summers only worships his own math. It’s understandable. He really is a genius. Unfortunately he still credits theories as true that are not true.
This was the source of his Harvard investment acumen. These days the math wizard is the laughing stock of Wall Street, which is a mill stone around his street cred.
Yes, Wall Street rejected him, too.
Wall Street hearts Yellen — big time. She’s punched all of the right tickets on her way from the inside.
Barry is hoping to find a raving money-printing fool that he can slip past Congress. Someone who, against all logic, does not disdain Barry’s arithmetic. (He can’t do long division — nor, apparently, sums.)
Anything beyond the number 1 is too much for Barry. He has so much invested in number one that he’s always looking out for number one.
I used to like Summers when he was president of Harvard. However, Harry Lewis, former dean of students and all around mensch, has made a strong case in a series of blog posts at “Bits and Pieces” that Summers was a disaster. Particularly troubling was his role covering up the Harvard-Russia Andrei Schlieffer insider trading scandal.
Thank goodness he was passed over for the Fed. Given his temperament, he had the potential to do as much damage to the world as Robert McNamara.
blert says it well.
Although my heart softens a wee bit for Summers with the feminista head butting at Haavaad, which he lost, to my surprise and disappointment.
I know folks here Down South who tell their kids they may not attend Haavaad even on a full scholarship. I’m with them. Vanderbilt, where my two younger went, is bad enough, but nothing like Haavaad.
Vandy grad here: it used to be sane, but the last time I was there, I saw that it had also been absorbed by the Hive Mind. I won’t send them a plugged nickel.
That said, the Ivies are even worse.
It was number 2, and number 2 alone. Numbers 1 and 3 are simply the excuses given to deny that it was number 2.
I’m not sure what it’s worth, but the rumors I’ve read also repeat the reports that Obama is very angry with those who’ve sabotaged Summers and promoted Yellen.
They’ve also noted that Obama is more than sufficiently petulant to reject Yellen out of spite. Country be damned. Their best guess for the new Fed chair is Roger W. Ferguson Jr., who’s generally well regarded, a neo-Keynesian, and most importantly — he’s African-American.
With Obama, always bet on narcissism and identity politics.
I believe that all of the people Obama is considering are deeply Keynesian in their outlook, which means they all will continue with QE. One or more may try to ease off, but they can’t see their way out of the corner they’ve painted. If they ease off on QE interest rates will go up now and the political backlash will quickly have them turning back to QE. However, if they continue with QE the bubbles – see equity indexes of late – will continue their rise until they collapse, and then we’ll get interest rates up anyway.