Summers's Recipe for a Strong Economy

Former University president Lawrence H. Summers said the Bush administration is not doing enough to jolt the economy out of its present sluggish state...

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on December 18 and a speech at the Brookings Institution on December 19, former University president Lawrence H. Summers said the Bush administration is not doing enough to jolt the economy out of its present sluggish state.

Summers suggested injecting $50 billion to $75 billion into the economy through a combination of tax cuts and spending measures, including extending unemployment insurance and increasing food-stamp benefits.

His prognosis for the economy going forward was not optimistic. "I believe that slow growth is a near certainty, that a recession is more than a 50% chance, and that there's a distinct possibility of a more serious recession that will lead to the worst economic performance since the late 1970s and early 1980s," the Journal story quoted him as saying.

Summers, a former Treasury secretary who worked in the Clinton administration, is now the Eliot University professor. He is also associated with D.E. Shaw Group, a hedge-fund manager.

Read the Wall Street Journal account or the Washington Post account, or get the speech text on the Brookings Institution website.

Most popular

The Professor Who Quantified Democracy

Erica Chenoweth’s data shows how—and when—authoritarians fall.

Remembering Tom Lehrer

The mathematician and satirist kept Harvard in his thoughts—and lyrics

Harvard Layoffs Continue, with More to Come

In the wake of federal government actions, several Harvard schools and institutes are cutting costs.

Explore More From Current Issue

Matt Levine in a dark blazer and glasses stands smiling with arms crossed in front of a large window in a city building.

Matt Levine’s spunky Bloomberg column

An illustration of a green leaf being hit by a beam of light and bouncing off the leaf and then becoming a color prisim

Light-based analysis of botanical collections link plants to Earth’s changing climate.

A crowd of people shout and march during a nighttime demonstration, while a man and woman in the foreground hold two silver-colored pans above their heads and bang on them with sticks

Erica Chenoweth’s data shows how—and when—authoritarians fall.