Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Summers and the corruption of economics

Charles Ferguson explains: "... Summers is unquestionably brilliant, as all who have dealt with him, including myself, quickly realize. And yet rarely has one individual embodied so much of what is wrong with economics, with academe, and indeed with the American economy. For the past two years, I have immersed myself in those worlds in order to make a film, Inside Job, that takes a sweeping look at the financial crisis. And I found Summers everywhere I turned..."
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Comment: My first encounter with Summers was at a conference in the late 1980s when he was already "sold" as "brilliant". He gave a talk. Not just me, but most of my other colleagues, too, felt disappointed by his presentation. Summers is the product of academic nepotism. The only place where he could continue to show-off without having substance was in politics, indeed, and much so at the hightest places because he couldn't even hold his Harvard presidency without disgrace. It is indeed significant that the author of the film Inside Job notes that he "found Summers everywhere I turned ..."

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