I have nothing against Larry Summers, but I think there is some sense to having people evaluated based on their job performance. Larry Summers thought the stock bubble was cool, ignored the housing bubble, was in favor of the over-valued dollar and gave warmly supported financial deregulation. This track record arguably make Summers one of the main villains in the current economic crisis. So why does the LA Times tell us that we need his wisdom to fix the situation? I have no doubt that Summers is very bright, but his brilliance did not prevent him from supporting the policies that got us into this mess. Why do we think that his brilliance will lead him to choose the best policies to get us out of it?
--Dean Baker
