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Larry Summers: Americans Need to be More Greedy

March 15, 2009

  After weeks of being told that corporate greed was a massive part of the economic downturn we are now being told by Larry Summers, (the president’s economic adviser), that greed is good and we need more of it to save the economy.

In the past few years, we’ve seen too much greed and too little fear; too much spending and not enough saving; too much borrowing and not enough worrying,” Summers said Friday in a speech to the Brookings Institution. “Today, however, our problem is exactly the opposite

   Let me sum up that statement, if Bush is president, greed is bad; if Obama is president, greed is good.

  Now I get it.

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6 Comments leave one →
  1. Terrant's avatar
    March 15, 2009 9:42 pm

    Actually, he didn’t mention Bush at all (or at least the linked article did not indicate that he did). If he did, he is full of it because some of these bubbles formed under Clinton’s watch. He is talking about the forming of bubbles. When the bubbles were forming there was too much greed. Now that the bubble had popped, everybody has retreated and nobody is investing because of it; hence too little greed.

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    • Steve Dennis's avatar
      March 16, 2009 5:14 am

      He didn’t mention Bush by name, that was my interpretation of “in the past few years” and “today.”

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  2. dweezil6's avatar
    dweezil6 permalink
    March 16, 2009 2:13 am

    I’m aaaah watching aah Larry Summers on C-SPAN and think he aaah is either drowning or doesn’t aah know what ah he is talking about. I used to think he knew how to keep the Harvard pukes in line, but it’s becoming apparent he’s been over his head for awhile. There’s a big fat tuna flopping around in da boat.

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  3. Deb's avatar
    Deb permalink
    March 16, 2009 4:33 pm

    OOOHHHH, now I know what they mean by “transparency”!!!!! Hahaha. THe bias is overwhelmingly obvious. Any time I hear anyone say
    “the past few years” or anything close to it, I know exactly what they mean. It’s the new way to Bush-bash. Now what’s the difference between implied and inferred?

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  4. Terrant's avatar
    March 16, 2009 10:24 pm

    I think it is pretty obvious that he’s talking about bubbles especially in the 2nd half of the linked article.

    “An abundance of greed and an absence of fear on Wall Street led some to make purchases — not based on the real value of assets, but on the faith that there would be another who would pay more for those assets. At the same time, the government turned a blind eye to these practices and their potential consequences for the economy as a whole. This is how a bubble is born. And in these moments, greed begets greed. The bubble grows.

    Sometimes a spade is a spade.

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