Summers on Demand (Pay people for not working, and more people will work!)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | April 15, 2010

[Cheap_Hessian]

Even when we disagree with Larry Summers, we've long thought of him as a better economist than politician. But after reading his nearby letter to the editor, we may have to reverse our judgment. The senior White House aide is abandoning his former economic views to serve the Democratic Party's current political purposes.

Earlier this week, we quoted an essay by Mr. Summers published in 1999 in which he explained that unemployment insurance creates an incentive for workers to delay going back to work. The share of America's jobless out of work for 27 weeks or more reached a new record of 44.1% in March, and Mr. Summers's past writing offers one likely reason.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Summers is perhaps the champion financial incompetent of the last 15 years. If not, he is definitely in the top three. He is extremely dangerous and not to be underestimated. His performance record is a series of smoking craters of self-dealing (”self” meaning to his Wall St buddies) and failed execution. He is personally responsible for losing over $1.5 billion of Harvard’s endowment. He was among the top “exilers” of Brooksley Born, who warned of the dangers accumulating in the financial system years before they came to the surface. He was also a significant enabler of the money the Clintons snaked out of the system. Of course, that size money is isn’t even crumbs compared to what we have going on now.

Summers is the absolutely classic case of pointing to your own incompetence, spinning it, and making it seem like you’re the most experienced savant in the room. He is an absolute and guaranteed disaster to any sane financial scheme of things.