Why Larry Summers Shouldn't Be Permitted to Run a Dog Pound, Much Less the Federal Reserve

[Divernan]

37. Fears rise that Obama is leaning towards replacing Bernanke w/ Summers.

You write: "virtually no one outside of DU is advocating for Summers either."

That is not the case, as a brief use of google documents. As of yesterday, this report over at HuffPo.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/23/larry-summers-fed-chairman_n_3641737.html

Fears Rise That Larry Summers Is Likely To Be Named Fed Chairman

Posted: 07/23/2013 6:34 pm EDT | Updated: 07/24/2013 10:58 am EDT

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is leaning towards former White House Economic Adviser Larry Summers as his choice to replace Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve, according to people who have been briefed on the administration's thinking. Liberal critics of Summers' economic record, along with those who continue to question his ability to work with women, are waging a last-minute campaign to persuade the president to change his mind and instead choose the other frontrunner for the job, Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen.

Chatter increased Tuesday among Summers' opponents when Fed Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin's name was floated as a possible deputy to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. Raskin, who has been harshly critical of the Fed, is broadly popular with progressives. Liberal Fed watchers suspected the move was aimed at people pressing Obama to name a woman to the Fed, and they worried selecting Raskin for Treasury would give the president cover to name Summers Fed chairman.

"We are concerned by rumors that Larry Summers, a man known for his offensive and callous opinions on women, is currently being considered to head the Federal Reserve. Women will not soon forget if President Obama picks Mr. Summers for such an important post, a man who believes women are somehow inherently less capable than men," Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of feminist group UltraViolet, said in a statement. "It is high time to shatter the glass ceiling at the Fed and appoint a woman to a post that impacts so many women, and Janet Yellen would be a much celebrated pick."

and: Others who have been briefed by the administration cautioned that the decision is not yet final. As speculation that Summers' ascension was all but assured picked up on Tuesday, administration officials told congressional Democrats that a choice hadn't been made.

At least one senator expressed his dismay Tuesday at the possible selection of Summers. "Larry Summers for Fed Chair? Disconcerting," Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) tweeted, "many questions to answer."

AND: earlier this month, from the Financial Times:

Larry Summers has an edge in the race to head the Federal Reserve

Edward Luce By Edward Luce
Charm is overrated. The most important quality for the role is intellectual leadership
http://ricochet.com/main-feed/Is-Obama-Really-Going-to-Pick-Larry-Summers-to-Replace-Bernanke


Is Obama Really Going to Pick Larry Summers to Replace Bernanke?
James Pethokoukis · July 9, 2013 at 1:08pm
Larry-Summers-600x420

While the common wisdom has been that dovish Fed vice chair Janet Yellen was the modest favorite to replace Ben Bernanke, the summer buzz in Washington is that the job is Larry Summers’ to lose. While that well may be, I am not sure why.

Take a recent pro-Summers Financial Times commentary by my friend Edward Luce. Luce writes that if President Obama “wants to fill the job solely on merit, Mr Summers ought to have the edge. … The most important quality is intellectual leadership – something Mr Summers would offer in greater abundance than the others.”

Yet the bulk of the piece actually makes the anti-Summers case quite well, mentioning Summers’ a) reputation as being abrasive and charmless, b) central role in the financial deregulation of the 1990s, and c) 2004 resignation as Harvard University’s president “after seeming to cast doubt on women’s aptitude for maths.” And let me add, Summers’ role as architect of the Obama fiscal stimulus plan, which GOPers see as a monstrously expensive failure.

But Luce thinks Summers’ economic IQ and “neutrality” on monetary policy would trump those negative factors.