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
By Richard Horton
The Lancet Vol. 385 February 7, 2015
The idea of a “grand convergence” in health, achievable
within our lifetimes, might seem a naive idea. Chronic
confl icts, unpredictable humanitarian disasters, and
the persistent fragility of some nation states makes
the notion of ending preventable mortality within a
generation little more than a pipe-dream. But these
ambitious goals have inspired wide support for the core
message of the Commission on Investing in Health,
known also as Global Health 2035 (published in The Lancet
in December, 2013). Why has the central argument of the
Commission, despite its utopian implications, been so
warmly embraced?
Read the full piece: Lancet Editorial on Global Health 2035
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.
Read more
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
Listen to the podcast here
The Upshot
By DAVID LEONHARDT
JANUARY 15, 2015
After almost 15 years of a disappointing economy, it’s easy to get pessimistic. Incomes for the middle class and poor have now been stagnating over a two-term Republican presidency and well into a two-term Democratic one. The great wage slowdown of the 21st century has frustrated Americans, polls show, and raised serious questions about what kind of policies, if any, might change the situation.
Yet if you look around the world, you can find reasons for hope.
While wages and incomes have stagnated in the United States (as well as in Japan and large parts of Europe), they have not done so everywhere. In Canada, a broad measure of incomes has risen about 10 percent since 2000, even as it’s fallen here. In Australia, it’s up 30 percent.
These aren’t just any countries, either. They’re among those most similar to the United States: far-flung, once ruled by Britain, with a frontier culture and a commitment to capitalism. Though Australia and Canada obviously are not identical to the United States, it certainly seems worth asking what they’re doing differently.
Read the full article here.
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
In an NBER working paper, published with Lant Pritchett in October 2014, Summers writes, “consensus forecasts for the global economy over the medium and long term predict the world’s economic gravity will substantially shift towards Asia and especially towards the Asian Giants, China and India. While such forecasts may pan out, there are substantial reasons that China and India may grow much less rapidly than is currently anticipated. Read more
As I am thankful for my family and its tradition of loving argument, I am thankful for the privilege of living in and serving a nation grounded in a commitment to reasoned discourse. Read more
