Larry Summers, Clinton’s former Treasury Secretary, the former Chief Economist of the World Bank, the former President of Harvard, and the former head of Obama’s National Economic Council, is obviously a devout reader of the Economic Man Blog, as in shown in this article. Keen observers might notice a resemblance to the The Plunge of Oil section of my December 18 posting (although I would probably disagree with him on the best use of the new tax dollars).
My favorite Larry Summers quote is his famously succinct rebuttal of the efficient markets hypothesis: “There are idiots. Look around.” (As many economists have pointed out, his observation is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for overturning the EMH. But this was close enough for government work.) Perhaps he came to this revelation while in government service. If not there, then certainly at a staff meeting at Harvard.
Roger Barris, London