THE SPINE OCTOBER 24, 2008
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Yes, I actually do know who you are. Basically nothings. Oh, and at least one of you is crackers.If there is one indispensable person who should be presiding over the disentanglement of of our economic shipwreck it is Larry Summers. And also presiding over the reconstruction of our financial institutions with an emphasis on sound investment, transparency, public need, democratic ethos, far-reaching insight and simple downright honesty. Frankly, Summers is among the two or three most brilliant people I know. What's more, he can lay out in clear and coherent English intrinsically very complicated propositions.As the factotum editor-in-chief of The New Republic, I was furious with Summers (and a bit hurt besides) when he signed up to do a weekly column for the Financial Times. (And, by the way, Larry, you still owe us a review of the new--well, now not so new--biography of John Maynard Keynes.) So I now read the FT, and I have to admit that Summers' articles have helped me grasp the disorder better than any other writing in the press. He is not at all a hysteric. But he doesn't promise us the stars.George Bush is like Alfred E. Newman: "What, me worry?" Paulson is a fawn caught in the headlights. And, as you might expect from Bush administration personnel dealing now with this disaster, they were intrinsic to its making.Barack Obama will choose whomever he wants for secretary of the treasury. But the person he chooses will not be saddled with that piece of history. Of course, I don't know what's going to stop the uncontrolled downward spiral of the markets. On the other hand, I'd be willing to bet a hefty sum that, if Summers were the elected president's designee, it would mark the beginnings of a healthy and sustainable market rally.And that's not all that it would cause, all good.
18 comments
Dream on Marty, Summers as secretary of the treasury, Dennis Ross at State, Gates stays at defense. There are going to riots on streets among most dedicated leftists Obama supporters. I doubt that Obama will be able manage such betrayal.
- jacobt1
October 24, 2008 at 3:33pm
You only now read the FT? If that's what it took, I'm glad Summers went to the FT. (Actually, I am an avid FT reader and Summers fan, so I very was pleased when his column began appearing.)
- dabeffert
October 24, 2008 at 3:50pm
This is Obama Sarkozy's Plan. Will Summers try to prevent it?
The French have also always wanted to stifle competition from low-tax jurisdictions, so that it is no surprise that as part of the new world order he has in mind Sarkozy sees an end to such "social competition," and a closing down of "tax havens." And lest French capital be unable to compete with foreign capital, he would have a European-wide sovereign wealth fund to buy up firms threatened with takeovers by foreigners. "I will not be the French president who wakes up in six months time to see that French industrial groups have passed into other hands." Never mind that many European financial institutions are starved for capital, or that France's energy utility has just bought Britain's nuclear industry.
Then there is the question of enhancing the powers of the International Monetary Fund, a Sarkozy goal enthusiastically supported by Britain's Labour prime minister Gordon Brown. Remember, the IMF is the organization that Nobel laureate George Stiglitz has accused of imposing impractical solutions on emerging economies, causing them much pain.
There's more, but you get the idea. Sarkozy, serving a 6-month term as president of the European Union, sees an opportunity to replace the American model of capitalism with the statism that has produced economic sclerosis, persistent high levels of long-term unemployment, and a rigidity that forces reliance on protectionism, overt and covert, of the sort for which the EU farm policy is a model
www.weeklystandard.com/.../736dnucz.asp.
- jacobt1
October 24, 2008 at 4:38pm
Dear TNR,
Can't you have a radio button on the comments for "view without Jacob's inanity"? That would make the reading experience much more pleasant.
- ReganaD
October 24, 2008 at 5:51pm
Or hell can I just pay for his subscription and you ban his IP?
- TLaBorn
October 24, 2008 at 7:34pm
Peretz, I like Summers for his conduct at Harvard. But as a Clinton official he pushed for deregulation just as much as Greenspan and Rubin. How can you forget that?
- sleepyavl
October 24, 2008 at 8:47pm
Guys, don't mind jacobt1. He's our Nazi and definitely anti-Semitic cuckoo here.
- sleepyavl
October 24, 2008 at 8:49pm
BTW, BIden also pushed for deregulation just as much as Greenspan and Rubin. How can sleepyavl forget that?
BTW, sleepyavl, just to make you crazy. Greenspan, Rubin and Summers are all Jews. Jews screwed up America with deregulation of masturbation. Seriously, why can't you think beyond Obama talking points.
- jacobt1
October 24, 2008 at 9:54pm
I think Jacobt1 is trying to funny. Seriously, can we block this shithead's url?
- jhildner
October 25, 2008 at 2:12am
jacobt1 in a Nazi anti-semite. He's as funny as an SS officer. Check his opinion about Jews in the next thread.
- sleepyavl
October 25, 2008 at 5:50pm
jacobt1, you are not making me crazy, because I know you are a demented anti-Semite. The current secretary of Treasury is not a Jew, nor have been the others in the Bush adminsitration. Bush, Cheney, and al their secretaries of Treasury since 200 are not Jews. These are the main deciders. yet you go after the previous secretaries, that years before the disaster.
That's because as a fanatic far-Right nutcase, you can never take ANY responsibility for whatever your partuy has done.
As the far-Right Nazi ass you are, instead of looking at the gentile people at the top who were responsible, you look to wherever you can find a Jew to blame him. "LOOK FOR THE JEW!" - that's all, besides stealing, what your mouth-foaming filthy being can do.
It is because of people like you, uncopmpromising anti-Semites, that I am happy to report for duty in the Israeli Defene Force. Your obsession with middle-level Jews -while you forgive the gentiles at the top of the power pyramid power- is the surest mark of the anti-Semite.
As long as people like you exist and are aggressive -as you are-, nothing but the existence of Israel and its army will defend us from another Holocaust. I have not the slightest doubt that you are capable of murdering Jews - for no other reason that they are Jews. Unarmed Jews, of course, since you are a shit-in-the-pants coward and you know it.
That why we Jews have Israel - to protect our nation from scum like you. I'll remember you at target practice in the IDF. I don't like wasting time in reserve duty, but you are a good motivator. You're not the first, but you're very effective. The IDF should thank you, Nazi jacobt1.
- sleepyavl
October 25, 2008 at 6:04pm
sleepyavl said:,
I'm glad to hear that now you are motivated to fight for Israel. God bless you.
" Your obsession with middle-level Jews -while you forgive the gentiles at the top of the power pyramid power-"
Please, Greenspan, Rubin and Summers were not middle-level Jews . However, we can be proud of their work. They did a great job. Nothing to be ashamed of. However, I don't like where we are going with this conversation. I think that you lost your mind. In reality, there is nothing special about Jewish voting pattern. They vote according their demographics. They are as stupid and snobby as their gentile neighbors.
- jacobt1
October 25, 2008 at 7:10pm
jacobt1 said:
sleepyavl said:,
I'm glad to hear that now you are motivated to fight for Israel. God bless you.
Fuck you bastard. I'm an Israeli citizen who served in the IDF. You're an anti-Semite, a Nazi rat and a coward. How dare you give lessons about Israel? I shit on your Nazi congratulations.
- sleepyavl
October 26, 2008 at 1:23am
"I shit on your Nazi congratulations."
Please do if makes you feel better.
- jacobt1
October 26, 2008 at 2:25am
Jacobt1
Obama's right. We need to retrain and retool to compete globally.
Obama's right. We need to anticipate budget problems by collecting the most revenue at the lowest pain level for each taxpayer, which means collecting more from the wealthy.
Obama's right. Higher taxes on the wealthy will not discourage them from making money.
Obama's right. Regulation can improve the economy because it creates reliability -- at the drug store, at the doctor, at the restaurants, at the grocery store and in the stock market.
McCain's Wrong. The surge is not working. We are still there. People are still dying. We are still pouring billions. At this rate, the surge will be working forever.
Jacobt1's wrong. All jews are not snobs.
- Nusholtz
October 26, 2008 at 10:04am
Nusholtz said
" McCain's Wrong. The surge is not working"
FDR was wrong . We are still there
Obama is also wrong. He finally admitted that the surge is working.
"Obama's right. Higher taxes on the wealthy will not discourage them from making money."
Outside US.
- jacobt1
October 26, 2008 at 10:51am
Jacobt1
McCain's wrong. Obama did not say the surge is working, He said there is less violence from the surge. But he did not say he saw the surge as the way out. That's the problem.
McCain's wrong. McCain thinks that someone who is taxed at 35% will cease working at a tax rate of 39.5%, when rates used to be at 70% and that didn't happen.
Jacobt1's wrong. All jews are not snobs.
- Nusholtz
October 26, 2008 at 11:53am
Nusholtz ,
OK, Yes, we can.
- jacobt1
October 26, 2008 at 2:26pm