August 16th, 2021
Here & Now’s Scott Tong speaks with Larry Summers, who was Treasury Secretary under former President Bill Clinton, director of the National Economic Council under former President Barack Obama. He’s now president emeritus of Harvard University.
Summers discusses the risks of inflation and how government spending on infrastructure will strengthen the economy.
July 2nd, 2021
New York Times, June 25, 2021 – Larry Summers has split his pandemic time between houses in Massachusetts and Arizona. He also seems to live inside the collective mind of the Washington economic establishment.
When the 66-year-old veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations talks, Washington’s policy apparatus — journalists and think-tank types, economists and communications people, administration researchers and Capitol Hill staff — stops to listen. It disputes, debates and ultimately disseminates his ideas. Sometimes, it does so almost in spite of itself. Deploring the way he dominates the narrative is its own catalyst to his dominance, though his critics often miss the paradox. Read the full article.
The covid-19 chapter in U.S. economic history is coming to a close more rapidly than almost anyone expected, including me. Within weeks, gross domestic product will reach a new peak, and it is likely to exceed its pre-covid trend line before year’s end, as the economy enjoys its fastest year of... read more
New York Times, June 9, 2021 - Six hundred billion dollars per year, and growing: That is two-thirds of total nondefense discretionary spending by the federal government, about what is spent on defense operations, military personnel and procurement, and more than mandatory federal expenditures on... read more