By Dan Kervick
It was deeply gratifying to learn today that Lawrence Summers has withdrawn his name from consideration for Chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Summers was a key architect of the late 20th century neoliberal economic system that failed catastrophically in 2007 and 2008, and he was implicated in some of the most notorious regulatory misjudgments of that era. There is no evidence that Summers has substantially altered the economic philosophy that animated him when he was helping to design and implement that system, so if he had acceded to the job of Fed Chief he would have been well-positioned to block stronger financial regulation and extend the unreconstructed regime of too-big-to-fail banks, loose rules, hegemonic financial sector growth and systemic financial instability that he helped create.
