Rude Failure Larry Summers Is A Candidate For Another Top Job

Let's go through the last 15-20 years of perfect, brilliant top economist Larry Summers' career:  He joined Robert Rubin and Alan Greenspan in their successful attempt to tear down long-standing financial regulations and keep derivatives totally unmonitored as a Treasury official and then secretary during the Clinton administration, directly leading to the 2008 financial collapse; he became President of Harvard, where he was a total failure who was eventually kicked out; he made $20+ million giving bad advice and speeches to gullible financial firms; he returned to government to head President Obama's economic team, where he was overbearing, crude to his colleagues, and incorrect about the depth and severity of the Great Recession; and then he went back to his plum sinecure at Harvard, where everyone hopes he will stay, quietly, forever. But oh, what's that, the World Bank isin need of a new president? Andwhois at the top of the list?

Just look at the creativity shown in selecting candidates for this big ol' job: Larry Summers and... who is this... Hillary something... Hillary Clintock... Hillary Chinten... Hillary Clinton, yes, that's the person:  

President Barack Obama may nominate Lawrence Summers, his former National Economic Council adviser, to replace Zoellick, two people familiar with the matter said last month. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also being considered, one of the people said.

Clinton has said she doesn’t plan to stay in her post if Obama wins a second term and plans to leave government.

“After 20 years -- and it will be 20 years -- of being on the high wire of American politics and all of the challenges that come with that, it would probably be a good idea to find out how tired I am,” Clinton told State Department employees during a town-hall meeting on Jan. 26.

We actuallydobelieve Clinton's people saying she has no interest in this job and just wants to leave town after Obama's first term, to vacation for a week or so and then commence plotting her next move. And since it's a post that doesn't require Senate confirmation, that makes Larry Summers pretty much a given. (Because it's a well-known fact that the super-genius most brilliant economist in history who is the only person capable of doing these top-level jobs, Larry Summers, would never be confirmed for any job by the United States Senate. This not something that should raise a red flag regarding his competence, we're regularly told.)

The lack of long-term planning here is especially worrisome. Has anyone thought about what we'll do in the future when Larry Summers is dead and no longer available to ruin our powerful institutions and global economy? Who will we look to then?

[ Bloomberg ]