'Why We Should Banish Larry Summers from Public Life'

April 20, 2009 (LPAC)—Weeks after the LaRouche movement initiated the Dump Larry Summers drive, the Obama economics advisor has begun to get some of what he deserves: Not just exposes of his crimes, but pointed, perceptive ridicule in the mass media. In a Sunday Washington Post op-ed with the above title, Naomi Klein wrote, "I vote to banish Larry Summers. Not from the planet. That wouldn't be nice. Just from public life." She concludes, "Mr. President, pop this bubble..."

Noting that Summers is "too close to Wall Street. And he's a frightful bully, of both people and countries," the author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism says the "often overlooked cause of the global financial crisis [is] Brain Bubbles. This is the process wherein the intelligence of an unarguably intelligent person is inflated and valued beyond all reason, creating a dangerous accumulation of unhedged risk. Larry Summers is the biggest Brain Bubble we've got.

"Brain Bubbles start with an innocuous "whiz kid" moniker in undergrad, which later escalates to "wunderkind." Next comes the requisite foray as an economic adviser to a small crisis-wracked country, where the kid is declared a "savior." By 30, our Bubble Boy is tenured and officially a "genius." By 40, he's a "guru," by 50 an "oracle." After a few drinks: "messiah."...

"Alan Greenspan's Brain Bubble allowed him to put the economy at great risk: When he made no sense, people assumed that it was their own fault. Brain Bubbles also formed the key argument Greenspan and Summers used to explain why lawmakers couldn't regulate the derivatives market: The wizards on Wall Street were too brilliant, their models too complex, for mere mortals to understand....

"[Summers] has been spectacularly wrong again and again. He was wrong about not regulating derivatives. Wrong when he helped kill Depression-era banking laws, turning banks into too-big-to-fail welfare monsters. And as he helps devise ever more complex tricks and spends ever more taxpayer dollars to keep the financial casino running, he remains wrong today.

"Word is that Summers's current post may be a pit stop on the way to the big prize, Federal Reserve chairman. That means he could actually make "maestro."

"Mr. President, please: Pop this bubble before it's too late."