On Thursday, May 7, 2015, Summers talked with Bloomberg’s Stephanie Ruhl and Erik Schatzker at the Salt Conference in Las Vegas, NV. They discussed Treasury yields, Europe, China and concerns about growth in the United States. Summers talked of the “dawning and growing awareness in the market of the idea we may have a chronic excess of savings over investment in the economy — a phenomenon known as secular stagnation.” Read more
On May 4, 2015, on the 40th anniversary of Okun’s Equality and Efficiency book, Summers provided remarks at a Brookings Institution celebration. Summers wrote, “Art’s capacity for well rounded wisdom regarding the most important issues of the day was nowhere better illustrated than in Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff, the book whose 40th anniversary we celebrate today. I still remember the excitement with which I read it as a first year graduate student.” Read more
In an interview on April 19. 2015, with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Summers said, “This is a moment for us, as a country, to do what a business would do, which is to take advantage of low borrowing costs to invest in our future.” Summers told Zakaria, “This is not the right moment for a lurch to austerity.” Read more
In an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered on April 16, 2015, Summers discusses the new China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Summers says, “We’re contemplating a major institution in which the United States has no role, that the United States made substantial efforts to stop — and failed.” Read more
Summers talked with Joe Kernen from CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday, April 9, 2015 saying, “Pre-emptive wars don’t work and pre-emptive wars on inflation would be a big mistake.” Summers also told Kernen, “We need to be all over the inflation data.” Read more
In a paper published by the Hamilton Project on March 30, 2015, Brad Hershbein, Melissa S. Kearney, and Lawrence H. Summers analyzed what increasing education will and will not do for earnings and earnings inequality. Mainstream labor economists as well as several public commentators have argued that trends in the economy over recent decades—including technological developments, globalization, and trade, among others—have weakened the relative earnings power of those with lower levels of skills, especially those without a college degree. Read more
In an exclusive interview with Prof. Summers and Prof. Edmund Phelps, Thought Economics looks at the story of modern capitalism, the benefits it has brought, and the challenges it has created. The series explores the ‘post crisis’ economy, the role of government in society, the relationship between capitalism, conflict and inequality and looks at what needs to be done to ‘fix’ our global economy, and the science of economics itself. Read more
In an March 3, 2015 article in The Washington Post’s Wonkblog Summers talked about technology, inequality and education. Summers reaffirmed the idea that more education won’t solve the inequality problem and called technological change an important fuel for the rising economic share captured by the top 1 percent of American earners.
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Summers’ “Asiaphoria Meets Regression to the Mean” NBER Working Paper co-authored with Lant Pritchett, was featured in NBER’s March Digest. The paper demonstrates that typical degrees of regression to the mean imply substantial slowdowns in China and India relative even to currently cautious forecasts. Read more
Summers participated in a panel, “Future of Work,” hosted by Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institue on February 19, 2015. Summers said, “the idea there are all these jobs and we just need to train people is an evasion of the problem, we need more demand!” Read more
On February 16, 2015, in her column for USA TODAY, Maria Bartiromo talks with Summers about Europe, Russia, Ukraine and and the implications for the global economy. Summers also discusses the U.S. economy, oil prices, the Fed and what Summers is learning from his students. Read more
Summers appeared on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street on February 12, 2015 to discuss why extraordinary economic conditions require extraordinary measures, and now is not the right time to raise interest rates. Read more
In an interview with the Harvard Business Review on February 9, 2015, Summers discusses the work of the Commission on Inclusive Prosperity and why executives and business owners should care about it. Summers answers questions like, How does corporate governance need to change in your view? Can the private sector create a more inclusive economy or is it up to policymakers to solve the problem? Read more
This past week I delivered a lecture at Columbia University on academic freedom and anti-Semitism. I argued that it is the essence of academic freedom that all members of our community can hold whatever views they wish and express them freely. But it is equally the essence of academic freedom that universities as institutions must avoid acting in a way that suggests that they endorse any one position in a political controversy. Read more
On January 30, 2015, Summers talked with Maria Bartiromo on FOX’s Opening Bell about the global economy, oil prices and innovation among students.
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In an interview on the Charlie Rose Show on January 29, 2015, Summers discussed the growing concerns about the sense of stagnation. Summers told Rose, “we are in unchartered territory in regards to the global economy, with problems with lack of demand, deflation that’s too low, central banks that have trouble being activists and too much savings.” Read more
Summers discusses the challenges before the European Central Bank and explains why he sees Europe on its way to being the next Japan. He spoke to Bloomberg TV from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 21, 2015. Read more
The Inclusive Prosperity Commission, co-chaired by Lawrence H. Summers, released a new report on January 15, 2015 that offers bold new prescriptions to reinvigorate the middle class and reduce income inequality. Summer said, “No industrial democracy will succeed unless its middle class enjoys sustained growth in living standards. This depends not only on strong economic growth but also on assuring that its benefits are widely shared.” Read more
Marc Andreessen’s thoughtful “Tweetstorm” on secular stagnation raises a number of important questions. We are in agreement that the essence of the secular stagnation issue is not whether technology has stopped advancing; but rather whether there is a mismatch between desired saving and investment opportunities that results in low equilibrium real interest rates, precipitates financial instability, and may inhibit economic growth. Here I respond to his specific questions and criticisms regarding the secular stagnation hypothesis: Read more
In an interview on January 9, 2015 with CNBC’s Squawk Box, Summers said while American economic growth is getting better and leads the rest of the world, investments need to be made to get the economy stronger. “Confidence is the cheapest form of stimulus,” he said. Read more
