Bloomberg: White House officials expect Lawrence Summers to leave his job as the president’s National Economic Council director after November’s congressional elections, according to three people familiar with the matter.
His departure would leave Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as the only member of President Barack Obama’s original top-tier economic team. Summers, 55, and the president have discussed his future plans, according to one person.
Like rats abandoning a sinking ship, another one of Obama’s economic advisors is leaving. While it is quite normal for many of the original team to depart an administration, it is quite curious that those leaving early ( Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Christina Romer, the head of the Council of Economic Advisers) all had a hand in our current economic disaster. You kind of get a feeling that they know what is coming down the pike and want to be far, far away from it when it happens.
The administration is said to be seeking a woman to fill the role. Given the state of our economy, the administration would do well to make competence its top priority rather than gender. Who cares if Summer’s replacement is a man or woman? At this stage of the game what is sorely needed is someone who has actual experience in economy, someone who understands how business is run and someone who actually created jobs in real life.
Via: Memeorandum
Via: Bloomberg
Via: Politico