Where the Economy, and the World, Are Headed

If you want to know where the economy is headed, ask an economist. If you want to know why (and more), ask a treasury secretary, an economic diplomat, a director of the National Economic Council and the president of Harvard. Larry Summers has been all of those things (and more).
Andrew Ross Sorkin, Interviewer
Lawrence Summers
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[@clifftanch]

What Summers said about his grandmother echoes a book by the Northwestern economic historian Robert Gordon. The book is well worth reading.

[@clifftanch]

Harvard has no comparative advantage in nurturing EQ - so why will Harvard survive?

[@ireneuszpyc6684]

Enron boss said: we have the smartest people in this room- they will always find a way to make money; Harvard is like that too

[@cheersmodreams691]

Good conversation. Larry Summers, here, is far more animated than he is on Wall Street. It's refreshing because he has a voice and perception of the economy and politics that needs more attention.

[@thanoskoumpanis9699]

short on elon?

[@joycekoch5746]

Summers sounds like a guy trying to talk while passing a Bric.

[@patrickwal55]

Smart guy, mostly vapid evasions. He is sharing < 1% of what he knows that would be truly useful and surprising for this audience in this context. Instead, mostly pointing out the obvious.

[@mfu9943]

Great to be see an invigorated Summers.

[@henry8438]

Is elon a top 100 ceo? What about stephen schwarzman ? ... they're all supporting trump this time.

[@jordanbertagnolli7388]

A presidents' policies have a significant lag effect, meaning that trumps' inflationary tax cuts, tarrifs, and out of control spending drove inflation after he left office

[@novakdjokovis]

feels like hes happier nice

[@chunmuhe4860]

when Larry Summers start talking don't learn coding, then you will know how badly the AI is exaggerate!

[@B_knows_A_R_D-xh5lo]

😊😊😊😊😊

[@TheControlBlue]

Even a smart guy cannot be free of his affects and phobias. If your kind had been more concerned about what Trump was saying instead of who he is, you could have seen things like October 7 and the Harvard protests coming. But hey, NO MEAN TWEETS!

[@jawedz]

Justifying a genocide, apartheid and naqba. Criticism of a foreign state is not racism. Justifying the naqba is.

[@edmundlively8137]

Automated insight, AI is the SingularitY because it can improve itself without guidance from humans. Whoever is lucky enough to own NVDA can now just sit back, relax, prop his feet up on the desk, and wait for the money to roll in. 😮😮

[@jose98937]

why you even bring up semetism ( wrong to answer, of course, you are one) ? fortunately you got your answer. sadly people like altmen, et al, will use or abuse AI even more to subjugate freedom of speech of those who you object as point of view like the remark he et al made on how student must be banned merely because of their point of view. That where, humanity should must, and is more than terrified.

[@witHonor1]

There's an error in your description, I'll fix it for you. "If you want to know where the economy is headed, DON'T ask an economist." They have no clue what they're talking about. They live in a hypothetical world that they try to manipulate to match their hypothesis. It's backwards from science. It's a belief system, it's a religion. When we get into the idea that economics is more than the trade of goods and services, then involving a currency to facilitate that, we've arrived in Lalaland.

[@gordonsteen8415]

Great talk.

[@Vicky-Blue]

Speaking out against genocide when the perpetrator is Israel is considered antisemitism. Ok ✅

[@ISpitHotFiyaa]

Yeah, I was very disappointed in his answer to that. Lot's of whataboutism. Other Arab countries haven't been friendly to Palestinian interests? OK. How does that justify Israel stealing land, killing people, and blockading Gaza for 15 years? He should have passed on that question. He's not a foreign policy expert and it shows.

[@askartop2628]

okolosinagoga)))

[@reallyfrodo]

His comments on Palestinians are frustrating. The reason people care so much is because it's American money and weapons involved in their oppression. Why do people not speak up as much about other people's suffering? Because we aren't paying to bomb them. I echo his ending - I find your blindness to that fact makes your motives... suspect.

[@SupertasterM]

Comments on AI and the scaling of world events are really interesting and intuitively correct. He must have been quite amazing as an educator.

[@Zzz-lz9kb]

Did he just gloss over the internet as not as great an invention and not on the same level of positive impact and innovation as indoor plumbing? He was right about inflation but he is starting to sound more like a grumpy old partisan than an objective economist.

[@ISpitHotFiyaa]

I don't think you really appreciate indoor plumbing to the degree that you should. We couldn't have dense cities if people were still using outhouses. Plus we'd have cholera outbreaks all the time. The modern sewer and water system is a pretty big deal. The internet is great but it mostly replaced a lot of things that were perfectly fine. I mean if I had to go back to physical newspapers and magazines, paying bills by mail, and watching TV instead of streaming I wouldn't be happy about that but I could live. Giving up showers, sinks, and flush toilets would take a lot more getting used to.

[@pldevries]

Summers looks,s ounds and acts like someone just dragged him out of a bar. His time as a pundit or economist has come and gone.

[@cultureclique2173]

You invite a corrupt guy to this session? A guy who contributed and benefited from the 2008 economic crises? Thats what’s wrong with this world.

[@bstewartny]

You NEVER ask an economist where the economy is heading. If that was true, then economists would be the best investors in the world, and would be incredibly wealthy due to their investing acumen. However, most commonly the opposite is true. Instead better off asking successful traders and investors.

[@danielarak]

Actually Summers is a very successful and wealthy investor

[@theonlycaulfield]

Clif Asness, billionaire head one of the largest hedge funds in the world, was an economics phd candidate. Keynes also grew very wealthy through investing, much of it in a period where the market as a whole performed poorly. Summers has also been quite successful as the other mentioned.

[@ireneuszpyc6684]

the average hedge fund lasts 6.5 years: you need to heed advice long-term successful managers only; not the latest hot shot

[@bigal8986]

Just some Libby 🐓🍭🧚 FJB

[@objectivethinker3225]

Larry is a smart guy but he needs to learn to put his bias against Trump to the side. Trump was President for 4 years and his policies certainly didn't tank the economy or cause inflation.

[@pjf55]

No, a worldwide, unprecedented epidemic did

[@imtryinghere1]

Trump exploded the deficit -- nearly doubling it to almost $1 T a year, even before the covid pandemic hit. The tax cut he passed was totally reckless. The bill would come due eventually for the borrowed money and unpaid for spending, in a Trump second term or Biden's term, even without covid. A short term sugar high of tax cuts that are unpaid for and passed onto the next generation is nothing but gamesmanship and sleight of hand. And I say that as a person who voted against Obama and hated his policies.

[@justwhenithought]

What Larry talked about are trump's policies that are either new or spicier old ones.

[@objectivethinker3225]

@@justwhenithought I'm glad Larry can see into the future. Also the spicer old ones like tariffs on China have not only remained in the Biden administration but tariffs have actually been added on certain Chinese products.

[@olderchin1558]

Biden followed Trump's policies almost to the letter and failed. If America wants to put America first, it has to sacrifice America good. Anti-China policies don't bring back jobs to America or stabilise it's yoyo economy, it has to be anti-gobalisation. Tariff all imports with very small exceptions. The working class will be happy but the elite will not.