The choice for Treasury
Noam Scheiber has an excellent story in The New Republic profiling the two leading candidates to be Treasury Secretary — former Secretary Larry Summers and current chairman of the New York Fed Tim Geithner. It’s mostly about Gethner, but it contains this priceless example of the hubris, brilliance and abrasiveness of Summers: Summers’s brilliance made ...
Noam Scheiber has an excellent story in The New Republic profiling the two leading candidates to be Treasury Secretary -- former Secretary Larry Summers and current chairman of the New York Fed Tim Geithner. It's mostly about Gethner, but it contains this priceless example of the hubris, brilliance and abrasiveness of Summers: Summers's brilliance made him simultaneously exhilarating and exhausting to work for--a whirlwind of intellectual energy fueled by an endless supply of Diet Coke. "I remember once giving him a memo that was three pages long," recalls Steve Radelet, a onetime Harvard economist who worked for both Summers and Geithner. "I'd worked on it for days and days. He read it in a minute and a half. He looked at me, saying, 'I don't agree with your argument. But, if I were making your argument, I could have made it better. Here's how.' " I heard a boatload of stories like this when I was at Treasury. I should also add that I heard nothing but good things about Geithner. Based on what I know and hear about both men, my slight preference would probably be for Geithner, but on policy grounds I don't think there is a bad choice to be made between these two. Politically, I see that there's already an effort to spike Summers. Over at the Huffington Post, Max Blumenthal is claiming that Summers' authored a controversial World Bank memo advocating environmental dumping in the developing world. Regardless of the intrinsic merits of this position, Blumenthal's allegaion is horses**t. To read what actually happened, click here. Hat tip: Ben Smith. UPDATE: Fortune's Andy Serwer thinks Summers has the inside track.
Noam Scheiber has an excellent story in The New Republic profiling the two leading candidates to be Treasury Secretary — former Secretary Larry Summers and current chairman of the New York Fed Tim Geithner. It’s mostly about Gethner, but it contains this priceless example of the hubris, brilliance and abrasiveness of Summers:
Summers’s brilliance made him simultaneously exhilarating and exhausting to work for–a whirlwind of intellectual energy fueled by an endless supply of Diet Coke. “I remember once giving him a memo that was three pages long,” recalls Steve Radelet, a onetime Harvard economist who worked for both Summers and Geithner. “I’d worked on it for days and days. He read it in a minute and a half. He looked at me, saying, ‘I don’t agree with your argument. But, if I were making your argument, I could have made it better. Here’s how.’ “
I heard a boatload of stories like this when I was at Treasury. I should also add that I heard nothing but good things about Geithner. Based on what I know and hear about both men, my slight preference would probably be for Geithner, but on policy grounds I don’t think there is a bad choice to be made between these two. Politically, I see that there’s already an effort to spike Summers. Over at the Huffington Post, Max Blumenthal is claiming that Summers’ authored a controversial World Bank memo advocating environmental dumping in the developing world. Regardless of the intrinsic merits of this position, Blumenthal’s allegaion is horses**t. To read what actually happened, click here. Hat tip: Ben Smith. UPDATE: Fortune‘s Andy Serwer thinks Summers has the inside track.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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