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Larry Summers Locked Out
The news that Larry Summers was paid more than $5 Million by the hedge fund D.E. Shaw in the year before he joined the Obama Administration is not that surprising. What is good news is that he will be barred from any involvement in the decisions over how hedge funds will be regulated. According to the White House,
"Of course, since joining the White House, he has complied with the strictest ethics rules ever required of appointees and will not work on specific matters to which D. E. Shaw is a party for two years."
While Treasury Secretary for Bill Clinton, Summers fought to keep hedge funds from being regulated. Now that must change and they should be as transparent as mutual funds in their disclosures. The notion that Summers will be locked out of the room as these regulations are formulated is a relief.
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The notion that Summers will be locked out of the room as these regulations are formulated is . . . .
Meaningless spin!
April 4, 2009 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who thinks we are dumb enough to think his physical presence is the issue????
April 4, 2009 5:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
You actually believe that Summers will be locked out of these discussions?
Does it even matter since Geithner is Summers' protege?
How about barring D.E. Shaw from participating in the PPIP program?
April 4, 2009 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
xlint idea.
April 4, 2009 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
And Summers is a Greenspan protege (or at least believes in a similar ideology)...so that would make Geithner a...?
April 4, 2009 10:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
A Kissinger protege. So: criminal greed + criminal war = Oy.
April 6, 2009 9:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Who wrote the ethics rules? Marie Antoinette?
April 4, 2009 12:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes. I too am greatly relieved. The sort of relief one derives from blood letting.
April 4, 2009 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
1. In the year before he began his "official" job at the White House. I find it impossible to believe that he had no contact before the actual employment contract.
2. Locked out?? If this was the Bush WH, the screaming would be deafening.
April 4, 2009 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
The screaming is deafening, and you would notice if you bothered to read the other comments.
April 6, 2009 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's really effective. He's barred from acting on hedge fund matters re Shaw, but not hedge funds matters for its competitors. I guess Shaw deals with extraordinary and unique hedge fund unlike its competition. Where's that new suit for Emperor Obama?
I guess Obamas apparent band aid reforms are better than Bushies effective inaction.
April 4, 2009 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean inaction like "forgetting" to put Iraq war in the budget? I am not happy with Obama's choices here, but the best thing about them is they're not the criminals b loaded the wh with. And, the good news, there are quite a few who have integrity. Name 10 in the last administration.
April 4, 2009 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Death to Summers. Guillotines on the Mall. What are we waiting for?
April 4, 2009 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Guillotines are an excellent idea. Our ADHD population would leave UFC and American Idol ratings in the dust. It'd be a WIN WIN situation.
April 4, 2009 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
There are a lot of skilled tool and die makers in Detroit who are out of work who I'd bet could make a dandy guillotine. Given a little time they could automate it and get a production rate of several hundred or more an hour. And they would work cheap. They might even donate some time for such a good cause. We gotta cough up for medical and workmens comp though. Fair's, fair.
April 4, 2009 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama is choosing his financial gurus from the arena that contained the bankers, hedge fund managers and all around money changer industry and their associates.
Obama may be Bill Clinton redux.
April 4, 2009 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sadly I believe you are on to something, but maybe not in the way your thinking.
April 4, 2009 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
ProfessorB,
My comment was not a compliment.
April 4, 2009 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
April 4, 2009 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
The start of a change to sane policy is to lock Summers out the Admin entirely. Spring may start when Summers falls.
April 5, 2009 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Strictest ethics rules".
Is this conversation still about Washington and Wall Street or did someone change the topic when I blinked?
April 4, 2009 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Summers being "locked out" (as if anyone in their right mind believes he will not play a pivotal role in ongoing decisions given that Geithner is his protege) is grossly inadequate. Summers absolutely has to go as he is hopelessly compromised, preferably taking his hapless protege Geithner with him as well.
April 4, 2009 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
This only re-confirms my already strong sense that Summers is not the guy to be leading the administration's economic charge.
What Obama is really missing in this mess is a visionary: an innovative political-economic intellectual who can articulate a new social vision, and coordinate the administration's policies to advance that vision. I know Obama has some vision of his own. But he needs more.
When Reagan was elected, he was able to create a "revolution" because there was a stable of young, right-wing economic intellectuals waiting in the wings, supply-siders and monetarists, who were given the keys to the car and allowed to drive.
What have we got? We've got some warmed-over Keynesianism and some neoliberal Rubinomics. Old stuff. Where are the fresh ideas? Where is the vision of a better social order?
April 4, 2009 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know if we need an intellectual visionary. I agree with David Brooks taht:
"Too many people were good at math but ignorant of history."
We seem to lack people who can connect not just with their head but with their gut to the history of the American middle class and the threat to its future. Sometimes I think we'd be better off if Michelle Obama had been elected instead of her husband. Hmmm....maybe she could replace Summers.
April 4, 2009 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not like David Brooks is very good at history, other than the right-wing revisionist type.
April 6, 2009 10:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Setting aside his past history as inside man for Wall St., which has been set aside it seems, he also made a coupla $mil last year giving speeches to the likes of GS, Merill-Lynch, Citigroup, Lehmans, etc.($135,000 for one little speech at Goldman-Sachs just months before the Obama group took office. No conflict there, right?
Maybe, he should be locked out of advising on the whole financial industry (or maybe he should be locked up, not out). He could advise the administration on equal rights and gender issues.
April 4, 2009 6:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
So far we understand Obama's channeling of Lincoln. Lincoln's team of rivals has become Obama's center-right cabinet. His government of the people consists of Corporate Tim and Corporate Larry (the eight million dollar man ... and we are only talking 2008 here). His government for the people is the Geithner bailout bill re-inflating the Big Shitpile to preserve at our expense the wealth of the obscenely wealthy and the power of the Wall Street interest and his escalation in Afghanistan and postponing withdrawal from Iraq. He has made the Obamabots very happy. Taplin can do another paean of praise to the great man.
April 4, 2009 6:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL. What is wrong with Taplin? What does he stand for?
April 4, 2009 7:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I had the strong impression he was an Obamabot now and forever. If I was wrong, I am truly apologetic. But I will try to look into it.
April 4, 2009 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
It could be just that he's an Obamaphile more than he is an actual liberal. But other comments he's made, such as his support for a mark to market suspension and his anti-short seller comments are extremely pro-corporate right wing positions.
April 4, 2009 9:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
VLaszlo,
my opinion of Obama was, and still is;
If he doesn't 'change' the course this government has been on for the last 30 or so years, which has been to represent Wall Street and the Corporate boys first while giving trickle down government to the rest of the public, he will go down in History as the biggest snake oil salesman to ever occupy the Oval Office.
If, on the other hand, he represents 90% of the public first and the money changers second he just might go up on Mt. Rushmore.
Sad to say, right now, it looks like the money changers are winning.
April 5, 2009 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I could not have said it any better. You have perfectly expressed my sentiments.
April 5, 2009 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with each of your points, and I too am concerned that the right dose of regulation and oversight will not occur, but I keep falling back to the campaign when I worried but always seemed to see Pres. Obama get the better of the situation.
I think as to your last point, it only appears that the money changers are winning, when maybe they won't in the long run.
I expect Pres. Obama knows where he wants to go with the economy. Unfortunately, he has to use guys like Summers and Geithner to get us there.
But if I see the absolute wrong moves, or if the moves never come, I will sing a different tune.
April 5, 2009 6:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
But of course Obama didn't "have to" go with Summers and Geithner. If you want to get to Kansas City, don't get on a train for Boston.
April 5, 2009 11:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly! Policy is personnel, and Obama chose the personnel, in this case Geithner and Summers. If he was so concerned with competence, why did he leave out all the left-leaning economists like Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, James Galbraith, or Dean Baker? I am so mad.
April 6, 2009 10:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
hahahahhahaha
no we are stuck with these wall street shills.
and after they fail, because they created the mess and do not want to fix it, who will obama go to next while the establishment is calling for his head??
they are here only to transfer trillions in wealth and then they like obama will be gone.
if you have a clue what happens next..speak right up.
April 5, 2009 9:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
I know what happens next: 100 million Americans suffer for a long time. It will make no difference who is in the White House.
April 5, 2009 9:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Locking Summers out is like the Judge telling the jury to disregard the comment the defense/prosecuting attorney just made.
April 5, 2009 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
With all due respect...Who is this guy? Why does he have a Cafe soapbox? Several of the...umm...least brilliant posts I've seen anyplace have appeared under this byline in the past couple of months.
April 5, 2009 11:20 PM | Reply | Permalink