Apparently not: The New York Times reports today on “the underlying tensions that have gripped Mr. Obama’s economic advisers as they have struggled with the gravest financial crisis since the Depression,” and notes “much of the tension derives from the president’s choice of the brilliant but sometimes supercillious Mr. Summers to be the director of the National Economic Council.” According to the Times, Summers’ friendship with Timothy Geithner is strained, and “Mr. Summers has been more populist than they expected for a right-of-center economist, siding often with Mr. Obama’s political advisers. That has given rise to speculation among colleagues, associates and banking representatives that Mr. Summers is trying to win the Fed seat.” (Summers dismissed the tweak as coming from “people who disagree with me.”)
