Huffington Magazine Issue 60 | Página 27

Voices PETER S. GOODMAN HUFFINGTON 08.04.13 AP PHOTO/FENG LI, POOL Larry Summers Is an Unrepentant Bully IN THE FALL of 2008 — just after many of the nation’s largest financial institutions teetered toward collapse, prompting the government to unleash a taxpayer-financed rescue — I called Larry Summers at his Harvard office to ask him whether he had any regrets. Specifically, I wanted to know how Summers had come to view his actions as Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, where he had joined then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to dismantle the government’s authority to regulate trading in derivatives — the very financial instruments then playing a central role in the crisis. Summers immediately took charge, barking that we were off the record — a directive that I rejected, prompting him to raise his voice. He accused me of conducting a “jihad” aimed at unfairly implicating him as a cause of the financial crisis. I promised to call him again before my piece ran, giving him time to reflect. I left messages but didn’t hear back, so I left one more, reminding him of my previous calls. When he finally called, his legendary condescen- U.S. National Economic Council Chairman Larry Summers meets with Chinese leaders in Beijing, in 2010.