Larry Summers' Big Comeback

Larry Summers will serve as director of the National Economic Council, but, according to David Leonhardt in The New York Times, "there really is no precedent for Mr. Summers's role." What can we expect when the Democrats' "shadow economic minister" moves into the White House? Summers has called inequality "the defining issue of our time," and will be "front and center" in pushing tax and job-growth policies to reduce it. He believes that "banking regulators shouldn't try to prevent the failure of individual firms. They won't succeed. They should instead write rules to contain the damage caused by any failure." Writes Leonhardt: "The best way to describe Mr. Summers may be to call him a skeptical aggressor. He is skeptical of any argument that's presented as inherently obvious. But once he is persuaded, he tends to go for big, bold solutions."