The rumor is that Larry Summers is dissatisfied with his relative lack of power in the Obama administration, and will soon be leaving.<\/p>\n
I am generally not a big follower of the Kremlinology school of politics, which looks obsessively at petty power squabbles amongst the courtiers in the White House, but it appears that Larry Summers, after being denied Treasury Secretary because he was too toxic, was expecting that he would be appointed to replace Ben Bernanke as Fed chair.<\/p>\n
Well, Joshua Green at The Atlantic<\/span><\/a> notes that Summers has started demanding perks, such as, I kid you not, “golf dates with the president,”*<\/sup> and that he is most unhappy with his role as head of the Director of the White House’s National Economic Council, and is considering leaving.<\/p>\n Well, all that I can say is, hip hip hurray!<\/p>\n Larry Summers, whatever his academic achievements have been, has been deeply, profoundly and disastrously<\/span> wrong on every venture into the real world, as evidenced by Mark Ames’ devastating portrait of his performance as a public servant<\/a> which shows him to be both incompetent and corrupt.<\/p>\n Here’s hoping that Barack Obama does not feel the need to keep him around. Larry Summers is not just the wrong man for these<\/span> times, he is the wrong time for any<\/span> times.<\/p>\n