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Change you won't believe
The Sideshow — Mark Ames in The Nation on Larry Summers: We all know in the backs of our minds that Barack Obama's incredible victory will eventually be followed by disappointment. But does it have to come so soon, and hit so hard? The answer will be yes, if Lawrence Summers is named treasury secretary in the president-elect's cabinet, as many observers believe will be the case. Summers was one of the key architects of our financial crisis--hiring him to fix the economy makes as much sense as appointing Paul Wolfowitz to oversee the Iraq withdrawal. And when you look at ...

King Larry
TPMCafe — ... the aforementioned Larry. Summers is said to be slated as either a White House Senior Adviser or director of the National Economic Council. Putting him in a lower-profile position than Secretary of the Treasury avoids some of the flak that would be raised over his colorful history: the infamous 'send toxic waste to Africa' memo, the treatment of Cornel West, the women-in-science flap, and the lenient treatment of scammer Andrei Schleifer. (See also Mark Ames in The Nation.) Prospective Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was ...

Larry Summers In A Superman Cape? Really?
Firedoglake — ... As Mark Ames says, "Summers was one of the key architects of our financial crisis--hiring him to fix the economy makes as much sense as appointing Paul Wolfowitz to oversee the Iraq withdrawal." I understand that you need the cooperation of Wall Street go get out of this situation every bit as much as you need the cooperation of the military to get out of Iraq, and having people in charge who make them comfortable is critical to that effort.   ...

Ratings Rule in Obama's "Virtual" Cabinet
The Agonist - thoughtful, global, timely — ... , the Secretary of Treasury pick, and Larry Summers, named to head the National Economic Council, both seem to have impressive resumes in banking and finance. Obama insiders made what appears to be a safe bet that the public wouldn't notice that both were up to their necks in the recent economic crash and tens of billions in Wall Street welfare. ...

Obama & the Military - Tinfoil Blogging
The Agonist - thoughtful, global, timely — Michael Collins There is some understandable gnashing and wailing going on about the "team" that Obama has put together. It certainly doesn't look like the "change" we'd hoped for, "we" being those free thinkers who are looking at results first instead of justifying "belief" by rationalizing uncomfortable and highly inconsistent facts. We see Geithner and Summers in key positions regarding the economy and the Bush family insider, Senator Judd Greg (R-VT) as the new secretary of commerce. Our health policy almost came under the ...