Did Summers Jump, or Was He Pushed?

by

On Thursday, Larry Summers told a virtual forum hosted by the Aspen Institute: “I am very, very happy being able to speak freely. My time in government is behind me and my time as a free speaker is ahead of me.”

My sources told me that the Biden campaign, yielding to serious pressure from progressive groups, asked Summers to take himself out of contention for a job in the administration. Summers made it sound like a purely voluntary decision.

My recent Prospect piece, cataloguing Summers’s serial policy disasters and zombie-like survival as an influential adviser, demonstrated why Summers had become a lightning rod for a broad range of progressive groups.

But don’t count Larry out. He has all sorts of back channels to the Biden campaign, including to Biden himself, who is said to like him. Summers did not say that he’d cease to be an informal adviser, and may yet turn up in some kind of transition team role. He also exercises significant behind-the-scenes influence through his numerous protégés.

According to several sources, Summers still covets the career-capper job that has twice eluded him—chair of the Federal Reserve. If Summers makes another run at the Fed, he can always say that, technically, chairing the independent Fed is not exactly serving “in government.”

Keep an eye on this guy. He has more lives than a cat.

A second Trump administration will cement a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court for a generation, and put our collective future in the hands of someone who will be virtually unchecked by our institutions. The country has shifted rightward, and the reverberations will ensue for potentially the next few decades. In this climate, a robust independent media ecosystem will be more important than ever. We're committed to bringing you the latest news on how Trump's agenda will actually affect the American people, shining a light on the stories corporate media overlooks and keeping the public informed about how power really works in this country.

Quality journalism is expensive to produce, and we don't have corporate backers to rely on to fund what we do. Everything we do is thanks to our incredible community of readers, who chip in a few dollars at a time to make our work possible. Any amount you give today will help us continue reporting on what matters to our democracy.

You can help power this newsroom by making a one-time donation or by becoming a member today.