Transcript: Larry Summers on Fox News Sunday – Economy, Chrysler
Chris Wallace, Moderator
Larry Summers, Council of Economic Advisors, Obama Administration
WALLACE: And hello again from Fox News in Washington. From the moment he took the oath of office, fixing the economy has been job one for President Obama. Now, as he nears the end of his first 100 days, that seems as big a challenge as ever.
Joining us to discuss where things stand is the president’s top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers.
Mr. Summers, federal regulators met with executives of the nation’s 19 largest banks on Friday to tell them how they did in those government stress tests. I know at this point you can’t reveal the individual results, but overall, what kind of shape is the system in?
SUMMERS: As Secretary Geithner said, the vast majority of the banks in the United States are well capitalized. There’s work that needs to be done. It can be done in many ways — by raising private capital, through exchanges, backstopped by government capital where necessary.
But I think we’re going to be in a good position to provide the support and set the framework in which the banking system can move along the process of recovery.
We’ve got a long way to go, but in just three months we’ve taken a whole set of important steps — mortgage relief for 9 million American homeowners that’s going to enable families who otherwise couldn’t have refinanced their mortgage to refinance their mortgage; substantial program of support for small businesses who have often been the group that bore the brunt of this credit crunch; measures to get the markets going so that you’ve got more of a flow of mortgage credit.
We’ve seen near — extremely high levels of mortgage refinancing, a substantial reduction in credit spreads for consumers. We’ve got a long way to go. There are still serious problems in this economy.
But both with respect to the financial side and, what’s obviously crucially related, with respect to the income side, the measures we’ve taken I think are very strong and offer the prospect of containing a very serious situation.
Video: Larry Summers Gets Heckled By Bailout Protesters in Washington
I’m An Obama Supporter and This Is An Example of Why It Makes Me Sick That Summers and Geithner Are in Charge of Economy
From the Washington Post tonight:
Lawrence H. Summers, one of President Obama’s top economic advisers, collected roughly $5.2 million in compensation from hedge fund D.E. Shaw over the past year and was paid more than $2.7 million in speaking fees by several troubled Wall Street firms and other organizations. …
… But Summers — who, as chairman of the National Economic Council, is a leading architect of the administration’s economic policies and helped shape the response to the global recession — appears to have collected the most income. Financial institutions including JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch paid Summers for speaking appearances in 2008. Fees ranged from $45,000 for a Nov. 12 Merrill Lynch appearance to $135,000 for an April 16 visit to Goldman Sachs, according to his disclosure form. Summers reported donating two fees totaling $70,000, including the payment from Merrill Lynch, to charity.
Is it any wonder that the investment class who brought us this Great Recession and blow up of the U.S. financial system is getting off Scot-free with taxpayer bailouts? Larry Summers who brought us the repeal of Glass-Steagal. Tim Geithner who brought us TARP, the original $700 billion bailout.
The point is that there are fundamental problems with what is considered economic activity that delivers real value. Are creatures of Wall Street the right folks to be deciding what a new economic playing field should look like? For instance, what limits should there be on securitization? What should be allowed to be securitized? Should insurance companies be allowed to sell insurance but not call it insurance so it’s not regulated? How much is too much leverage? Etc.
We know what Wall Street’s answers are to these questions. We know that Summers and Geithner are tools of Wall Street. So, we know with them as our economic brain trust we’re fucked — unless of course we’re trading, banking or insuring.
