Summers On Falling Sleeping: It Was My American Dream

Caught sleeping at a meeting with credit card industry executives last week, Larry Summers defended his White House nap on Sunday, saying that, with a topic "boring enough to put you to sleep," he was just trying to achieve his own American Dream.

From the closing moments of the chief Obama economic adviser's interview on Fox News Sunday:

WALLACE: We have less than a minute left and I do want to ask you one more question and I suspect you figured this one was coming. You were spotted at that meeting with credit card executives, it sure looked like you were falling asleep. Question: Do you find President Obama's speeches less than compelling, sir?

SUMMERS: Chris, you know, it's kind of like I was thinking about the fine print on some of those credit card disclosures which is written boring enough to put you to sleep. And President Obama wants us all to fulfill our American dreams. And I guess I was starting that day.

WALLACE: You've been a serial dozer because you were spotted at an earlier meeting. are you not getting enough sleep, sir?

SUMMERS: We're all working very hard in this administration, Chris, because we think that we want to support the president in what is a tremendous responsibility that he has to get this economy growing again and to again establish a period when family incomes are rising.

WALLACE: Did the president rib you?

SUMMERS: Oh, we've all joked about American dreams in various ways.

On a more serious and pertinent note, Summers cheered legislation that would provide "relief" and protection to credit card users, though he didn't directly say whether the White House would support an immediate freeze on retroactive interest rates.

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Comments

[PhilipTaylor]

WE HAVE FAILED CAPITALISM - TIME TO HONOR ITS PRINCIPLES!

Definition of Capitalism: An economic system for producing wealth ....without force or fraud...private rights are protected by the rule of law of a regulatory framework....legislative action defines and enforces the basic rules of the market. [edited down from Wikipedia]

1. Notice nothing about Taxpayer BAILING OUT the corporations who want wealth at any cost!
2. Without FRAUD and clearly the corporations did that
3. Rule of Law - They should be investigated and prosecuted
4. Regulatory Framework - Dismantled by Summers, Clinton, Gramm, and Bush
5. Legislative Action - Wall Street gave Congress $5 Billion to buy Votes over last ten years
____________________________

The BODY of EVIDENCE is against the Geithner/Obama Plan!

How many more intelligent people have to line up against Geithner programs of dumping endless amounts of money into zombie banks, before they do far more tested and wise procedures?

Problems:

1. Far more debts than FED can print money to overcome
2. Far more debt than we should put on books of Taxpayers
3. Far too much corruption in System, remove FAILED Management!
4. Savings&Loan Solution worked as did Swedish approach, so why "nurse banks along" like Japan's FAILURE in their "LOST DECADE?"
5. What is motivation for Geithner Plan? It addresses a very small part of $Trillions while costing the Taxpayer, FED, and Draining the FDIC!

Far more productive TARP Use is gently bankrupting these Zombies instead of a DROP in an OCEAN of Debt!

[zetacplus]

I agree 100%. Let them fail. They knew what they were doing. No way in hell should the taxpayers be put on the hook for this. This is like Bill Gates making his fortune on PC software and then losing it gambling. The money is gone, he can't get the taxpayers to give it back to him because he lost.

The banks gambled their future and lost. They need to close the doors and move on. Someone else will step up and take their place. But that's not how it works because our country is corrupt. The business leaders lost their fortunes gambling but they own our politicians so these bought and paid for politicians are giving it back to them.

There should be a revolution over this.

[Montgriz]

This just might be the worst Clinton appointment, er, I mean, Obama appointment of all....and tht is saying something...

[swanie]

Summers should be fired.

End of story.
.

[zetacplus]

I agree, when his response is to joke about it that means there is no discipline at the highest level and that is scary. What he should have done is apologize and ensured everyone that is was unacceptable. Instead, his response is unacceptable. No one is above being shown the door. There are plenty of well qualified people more able to handle the demands of the job than he obviously can.

[Judyisacutie]

I wonder if he was aware of what happened to the Japanese government's minister who fell asleep at a press conference in Europe. That guy no longer has his job.

[toypiano]

That's so revealing that Summers finds it funny that he fell asleep at a meeting to address the abuses of the credit card industry. After all, it's just the regular ol' American people whose futures are at stake, and he proves every day he couldn't care less about them. It's all just a big joke at our expense, hardy har.

Also, notice he says they "think" they want to support the president, etc. He's not at all sure he can even commit to the job he was hired for, which could explain why he is so bad at it. Well that, and his self-interested greed, of course.

He's much more like Cheney than anyone in the MSM will admit.

[DMcD]

Somebody just slap him up side the face will ya'

[super]

No, let him sleep. He'll do less damage that way.

[IntellectuallyHonest]

That's Summers' (but not Obama's) view of the pain of ordinary Americans trying to pay off their credit cards with the usury so prevalent in that industry.

[Prattvictory2]

"They call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it" George Carlin

[000Jade000]

"we've all joked about American dreams in various ways"

Did this one come up:

"It's called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it" (G. Carlin) ?????????????????????

[mam]

Arlo Guthrie once said of Ronald Reagan, "the more he sleeps, the safer we are." I'd say the same is true of Larry "science is just too hard for girls" Summers..

[booksnmoreforyou]

I won't be casting a stone.

[soupson52]

If they pass "no retroactive rate changes" and curtail sneaky fees (check arrives saturday, isn't recorded until mon, was due sunday, charge is outrageous! And other similar forms of robbery) he can sleep all he wants. Unfortunately, I'm afraid we are "Little Red Riding Hood" and he is the BBW.

[DragonFly]

Falling asleep may not have been for Mr. Summers choice, but deregulating financial institutions was.
So maybe our time would be better spent focusing on that?

[happybumblebee]

I agree 100%

[Independent voter]

Just for a little historical accuracy:

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allowed the repeal of part of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.
This legislation was enthusiastically supported by president $Bill Clinton.

[DragonFly]

Yes, and Larry Summers as Clinton's Treasury Secretary was the bills head cheerleader.

At that time Summers stated: ”Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century".

Kind of like fixing a wheel that WASN'T broken, right Larry?

Today, he justifies the whole thing by claiming that that was a different era - a time when credit default swaps “were a blip” (that would be because of 'regulation', Mr. Summers) and “very few people” predicted either their meteoric rise or the degree to which an overexposure to those complex products could harm the larger economy. In the finance environment of the late 1990s, the deregulations made perfect sense = just as they wouldn’t make sense today.

Yes Larry, I would imagine "very few people" had predicted much of anything because they were too busy calculating personal gain instead of things like future risk factors.
But then, I guess that's just part of the 'who knew' mentality in D.C. ... eh Mr. Summers?

Further he states: “You have to think about how the different parts interact,”
“That’s how you get to the best possible policies.”

Yes Larry, you do have to think about how the different parts interact ... so why haven't you?

[iblog]

From the article:
"On a more serious and pertinent note, Summers cheered legislation that would provide "relief" and protection to credit card users"

I'm glad that Summers went on Fox to explain details of this initiative. When done right the interviews there can do more to defuse pr0pangnda than any other manner.

[WhatDaBleep]

Wow - And no one ever said a word about Cheney falling asleep in meetings.

[DLBSR]

Ah c'mon guy, you can't know that. Wasn't he always in a secure undisclosed location?

[huffingt]

i bet Rahm gave him a spank .

[joebloe]

Me thinks he can afford a triple latté.

[DLBSR]

Well, if he's buying. :-)