Tag Archives: Rubinites

My “Idiotic” Insistence on Being Fair in Criticizing Larry Summers

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Devin Smith | 12 comments

My most recent column: Larry Summers Got a Bad Rap on Stimulus: Obama is the Problem so distressed one of my readers that he was moved to comment:

“Wow, this is a piece of shit column, full of straw men and idiotic praising of bad economists. You owe those of us who look up to you much much better than this.”

I have written a series of columns over the last several weeks criticizing President Obama’s reported desire to appoint Larry Summers as Ben Bernanke’s replacement to run the Fed. I explained why I viewed Summers as a leading architect of financial crises because of his failure to understand fraud and financial regulation. The reader who I distressed has a long and distinguished track record in fighting effectively for progressive causes.

Continue reading →

12 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged Larry Summers, Rubinites

Larry Summers Got a Bad Rap on Stimulus: Obama is the Problem

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Devin Smith | 15 comments

By William K. Black

I am a strong supporter of Janet Yellen and believe her support for the fiscal and monetary policies best designed to produce a stronger, prompter recovery from the Great Recession makes her the superior replacement for Ben Bernanke. The criticism of Larry Summers’ position on fiscal stimulus, however, was generally inaccurate. Within the Obama/Biden administration, the best known economists (Summers, Christina Romer, and Jared Bernstein) proved dramatically better economists than did the non-economists who eventually came to dominate Obama’s economic policies (Timothy Geithner, Jacob Lew, and William Daley). Summers, Romer, and Bernstein were strong voices in favor of fiscal stimulus. Summers deserves some additional praise because he had to break from his mentor’s (Bob Rubin’s) pro-austerity dogmas to reach his anti-austerian position.

Continue reading →

15 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged Janet Yellen, Larry Summers, Robert Rubin, Rubinites

The New York Times is Wowed that Obama’s Six Rubinites Support Larry Summers

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Devin Smith | 5 comments

By William K. Black

The Obama administration, for reasons that pass all understanding, has been running a campaign of leaks disparaging one of Obama’s few senior female appointees, Janet Yellen. Her high crimes include not being a protégée Bob Rubin and doing exceptionally well in economic forecasting. Rubin wants the job of Fed Chair to go to his top protégée, Larry Summers. Yellen, as Vice Chair of the Fed stands in the way of Rubin’s ambitions. (Rubin is too toxic to take the Chair directly.) The administration has been leaking primarily to the New York Times’ Binyamin Applebaum. His latest article contains this remarkable statement, without analysis.

Continue reading →