Economic doctors get sick, refuse medicine they prescribed others
Given [Presidential economic advisor Larry Summers'] experience with the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s, some economists wonder how he could have signed off on a bailout plan that did not force banks to admit that they were insolvent.
“The irony is that Summers and Geithner wrote the textbook on how to manage these crises, and they lectured countries all over the world on what to do,” said Adam S. Posen, deputy director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, lamenting that they did not “follow through with their own prescriptions.”
Mr. Summers dismissed the criticism, maintaining that the bailout plan, for which he said Mr. Geithner would announce details in due time, was “tough and ambitious.”
Yes, tough on taxpayers to bail out failed banks… not tough on the banks that have so eagerly shuttled Summers around in private jet luxury.
Posted by James on Tuesday, February 17, 2009