Filling Larry Summers’s shoes

Word leaked out this week on the list of contenders for one of the most influential jobs in the world: president of Harvard University. The Good Ship Harvard has been steered by interim president Derek Bok since the controversial Larry Summers stepped down in June. Summers, who was also Bill Clinton's final treasury secretary, argued ...

Word leaked out this week on the list of contenders for one of the most influential jobs in the world: president of Harvard University. The Good Ship Harvard has been steered by interim president Derek Bok since the controversial Larry Summers stepped down in June. Summers, who was also Bill Clinton's final treasury secretary, argued in FP two years ago that "unless it is brought under control, the U.S. savings crisis will soon be the world's problem"—a case that has only become stronger since 2004.

Word leaked out this week on the list of contenders for one of the most influential jobs in the world: president of Harvard University. The Good Ship Harvard has been steered by interim president Derek Bok since the controversial Larry Summers stepped down in June. Summers, who was also Bill Clinton's final treasury secretary, argued in FP two years ago that "unless it is brought under control, the U.S. savings crisis will soon be the world's problem"—a case that has only become stronger since 2004.

As can be expected, Harvard's "short" list of 30 names to replace Summers includes a number of big shots, many of them potentates at other major research institutions. Some prominent names: Columbia's Lee Bollinger, Penn's Amy Gutmann, and Nobel Prize winner Thomas R. Cech.

Also on the list, according to the Crimson's source: Jessica Tuchman Matthews, who happens to be president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, publisher of FP.

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