Voices
late this,’” Greenberger told me.
When I bumped into Summers
more recently, in January 2012,
he remained both unrepentant
and unreflective. I asked him if he
had any regrets given the benefits
of hindsight. Could he have done
more to avoid the financial calamity? Could he have accelerated economic recovery? He just scowled
and dismissed his critics as people
who lack the requisite sophistication about economics and politics.
The realm of the Federal Reserve
is arcane to most people, but suffice it to say that it is in something
like a control tower overseeing a
busy major airport: It is supposed
to recognize dangers early enough
to do something about them. The
Fed tightens the flow of money
when investment bubbles begin
to emerge. It eases the credit taps
when the economy is slowing. It is
the ultimate overseer of the financial system, the institution that
is supposed to be looking out for
signs of dangerous speculation and
inadequate transparency.
It is in short an institution that
ought to be headed by a keen student of history — a group that
includes Larry Summers — but
also someone capable of examining their own personal history in
PETER S.
GOODMAN
HUFFINGTON
08.04.13
pursuit of needed tweaks to their
thinking. The chairman ought to
be open to absorbing and considering the admonitions of others,
cognizant that no one’s thinking is
as sharp as several brilliant minds
probing a problem together.
Summers is temperamentally
ill-suited for this all-important
job. His life can be summed up in a
simple equation: Brilliance plus arrogance yields perilous foolishness.
The realm of the Federal
Reserve is arcane to most
people, but suffice it to say
that it is in something like
a control tower overseeing
a busy major airport: It is
supposed to recognize dangers
early enough to do something
about them.”
His absolute faith in the soundness of his views coupled with his
demonstrable tendency to disdain
people who disagree have put him
on the wrong side of history. We
can do far better than hand
him the keys to the Fed.
Peter S. Goodman is the executive
business editor of The Huffington Post.