ARNOLD KLING
August 14, 2011
The Top Political Contributors
August 11, 2011
Gender and the New Commanding Heights
August 11, 2011
Jamie Galbraith Makes an Assumption
August 11, 2011
Macroeconometrics: The Science of Hubris
August 10, 2011
Real and Nominal Bond Yields
BRYAN CAPLAN
August 14, 2011
The Effect of Thumb Sucking on Income
August 12, 2011
The Voice of Cold, Hard Truth to All Would-Be Educators
August 12, 2011
Ability, Morality, and Prosperity: A Paper and a Report
August 11, 2011
The Theory of Time and Frittering
August 10, 2011
Male Variance and the Remnants of the Gender Gap
DAVID HENDERSON
August 9, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken", Part Two
August 8, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken"
August 5, 2011
James Bovard on the Peace Corps
August 4, 2011
Summers Way Off on FDR and 1941
August 3, 2011
The "Amazon" Tax
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If I remember correctly, Summers is known to have a rather abrasive personality. This may explain the quote rather than anything about Obama himself.
I disagree. Larry Summers is clearly very very good at economics. He has done heavy research. Just about any human being in the world would not know as much economics as Dr. Summers. So why would such an individual find anything a layperson has to say about economics to be absolutely brilliant? We can't expect our president to be a wonk. I believe that would be expecting far too much. If the president is listening to his experts and drawing conclusions based on what they have taught him, shouldn't that suffice?
I'm more or less with Sohaib. It wouldn't be a good recommendation for a practicing economist, but for a non-economist this counts as praise.
The earlier commenters nailed it. Summers is kind of a famous jerk, and the relevant standard for a president is what Summers said it was: intelligent, serious, and thoughtful. It's not reasonable to expect economic brilliance of a kind that would dazzle Summers.
That's a nicer comment about Obama than what Summers said about most of the Harvard faculty when Summers was President of Harvard, at least according to 2nd hand reports of what Summers said in private.
Agree with Sohaib. Also, President Obama is an incredible improvement in this respect over his predecessor and vs the realistic alternatives who might be occupying that office right now.
Obama is "sort of impressive"? That almost sounds like calling him "articulate". So Summers can not only be labeled a sexist, he could also be called a racist. For those who go in for that.
More seriously, these were offhand remarks. According to the journalist, Summers was "musing about the presumptive nominee, whom he knew only in passing".
Does no one go back to the original source any more? Going back to the original article, the quote is from 2008 before Obama was the nominee, when Summers, according to the article, knew Obama "only in passing." Summers was just watching the campaign from the sidelines at the time, so his judgement is coming about listening to political speeches, not mulling over ideas in the oval office. How brilliant can you be in a political speech?
I had much the same feeling as Summers, and additionally, I concluded that he didn't believe what he said about NAFTA. So far it seems like a reasonable bet.