On Wings Of Clay
The last honest man on the Obama economic team* and his Citibank problem. Boston Herald on the flight of Larry Summers:
Top White House economic adviser Larry Summers hooked a freebie flight on a posh Citigroup corporate jet mere months before he began weighing the bank’s fate with other policymakers trying to save the banking system.
Summers’ decision to accept the freebie raises questions about his ability to remain impartial in those crucial deliberations, critics said.
…
One source said Summers took a number of flights on Citi aircraft.
…
Summers, the former Harvard president and a former Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, is now President Obama’s chairman of the National Economic Council.
Summers’ flying-in-style travel occurred only weeks before September’s Wall Street implosion, which forced the Bush administration and the Democratic Congress to agree on a $700 billion bailout program for banks.
Ailing Citigroup has already been awarded $45 billion from the taxpayer-funded program.
The Obama administration, which took power last month, still controls the second half, or $350 billion, of the bailout fund - and the administration is expected to unveil a plan as early as today on how to use it.
As a top Obama administration adviser, Summers has played a major role in developing financial-system and economic-recovery policies.
The whole thing here. Never a good sign if you have to share the splash at the Herald with A-Rod:
In the news today, NYT: Geithner Said To Have Prevailed On The Bailout. Beat Obama aides such as Axlerod who reportedly who wanted more controls on financial institutions. Doesn’t say where ”CitiAir” Summers fell in that debate. Meanwhile …
WSJ, Geithner Unveils Rescue Plan, But Details Are Scarce.
WPost, New Bailout May Top $1.5 Trillion.
CNN: Stocks Tumble As Bailout Plan Is Unveiled.
Malkin, channeling a sneering Schumer and Obama on the other half of the econ pie: Pork, schmork, you lost.
HotAir, Hey, what happened to Obama’s stim plan? You know, before all spending became “stimulus.”
* So is Larry Summers, or was he ever, the last honest man on the Obama economic team? Eminently debatable, a concept supported here mainly by admiration for his laudable attacks on PC moronocy and shoddy academics at Harvard, return fire having forced his ouster. He takes fire from both sides these days, often a positive indicator. That said, here he is ladling out Obama admin KoolAid: FOX Sunday.
Goldberg at The Corner on Summers’ Sunday performance suggests the outspokenness is obscured by the KoolAid gargling:
Look, I know he’s a very smart guy. I know he’s a competent guy. But he’s a bad White House spinner. I don’t know if it’s because he has too much integrity to flack convincingly or what, but he’s an underwhelming political voice, at least from what I saw on the Sunday shows.
Newsbusters on TIME’s Larry lovefest.
Astute Bloggers: Larry Summers admits Obama is playing politics with the porkapalooza!
On the other side of the ledger, here’s Summers-bashing Economic Populist on his purported coup d’etat.
Larry Summers gets his own hateblog: www.firelarrysummersnow.blogspot.com purports to be the product of a bunch of liberal, Obamadorational PhD economics students at top 40 institutions, collectively operating as Thorstein Veblen.** The economics students also known as Veblen hate Summers’ free marketism and pull up just short of blaming him for the Dow tanking on Obama. They don’t think he’s sexist scum, though.
** Presumably not the same Thorstein Veblen who died in 1929, pushed a focus on social and cultural forces in economics and coined the term “conspicuous consumption.”
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:10 pm on Tuesday, February 10, 2009
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