Larry Summers Will Leave White House At The End Of The Year

This post has been updated

Lawrence Summers, the White House's top economic adviser, will leave at the end of the year and return to his position as a professor at Harvard University, according to a statement released by the White House today. (The news was first reported by Hans Nichols of Bloomberg News.)

Earlier today, amid rumors of their departure, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said that President Obama is "enormously pleased" with the performance of Summers and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Reuters reported.

To fend off claims of being anti-business, the Obama administration may replace Summers, who serves as the director of the president's National Economic Council, with a top corporate executive, Bloomberg reports.

As Roll Call observed, at a town hall-style meeting broadcast yesterday on CNBC, Obama said he has yet to make "any determinations about personnel" on his economic team, but added that the administration is "constantly thinking ... do we have other options and other alternatives that we can explore?"

In a statement issued by the White House, the president expressed his gratitude for Summers's service:

"I will always be grateful that at a time of great peril for our country, a man of Larry's brilliance, experience and judgment was willing to answer the call and lead our economic team. Over the past two years, he has helped guide us from the depths of the worst recession since the 1930s to renewed growth. And while we have much work ahead to repair the damage done by the recession, we are on a better path thanks in no small measure to Larry's wise counsel. We will miss him here at the White House, but I look forward to soliciting his continued advice and his counsel on an informal basis, and appreciate that he has agreed to serve as a member of the President's Economic Advisory Board."

In March, Fox Business Network's Charlie Gasparino said "Wall Street executives" told him Summers might leave the White House by year's end. At the time, a White House spokesperson dismissed the "rumor" as "ridiculous." In April, Joshua Green of The Atlantic also predicted Summers would depart sometime close to the midterm elections.

Comments

[jeffmax]

10:37 AM on 10/07/2010

He is the first in long line that needs to leave the white house. Please Mr. President, the people that created this mess can not be relied upon to clean it up. Some of the people you have brought into your administration can only be characterized as hiring the mafia to investigate organized crime.

[PatCroft]

03:33 PM on 09/25/2010

Below is a tribute to all of Larry's deeds!

http://www.salon.com/news/great_recession/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/09/25/larry_summers_top_ten_blunders

I'm quite surprised we are still a country!

[carolo]

01:14 PM on 09/25/2010

I'd want out, too. I don't think anyone thought this economic mess was as great as it really was. Of course many of the posters here all think they could do so much better. Big joke!

[Yikes11]

02:44 PM on 09/23/2010

Dear MoveOn member,

Have you seen the latest polls?

In Wisconsin, Sen. Russ Feingold is trailing by at least 6 points.1 In Nevada, Majority Leader Harry Reid is tied with tea-party extremist Sharron Angle.2 Nationwide, Republicans have a 63% chance of taking over the House and unseating Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to New York Times analyst Nate Silver.3

It's not too late to turn this election around—but grassroots progressives need to step up to the plate and fight as hard as we did in 2008. We've got to save the Progressive Heroes, expose the corporate money behind the right-wing Republicans, and recruit a grassroots volunteer army to get out the vote.

If we can raise an additional $375,000 today, we can dramatically expand our election plan—run a wave of TV ads defending the heroes, launch an an attention-getting grassroots media campaign to expose the corporate money behind right-wing Republicans, and expand our volunteer turnout program in key congressional districts.

That'll take at least 6 donations from folks in Naperville. Can you chip in $5?

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/polls.html?bg_id=hpc5&id=23618

[Yikes11]

02:42 PM on 09/23/2010

Obama will put someone in worse than Larry, because this is the only way to appease the corporate task masters. Gawd forbid they continue to view his administration as anti- corporate when anyone who has a modicum of commen sense know this to be the complete opposite.

www.change.org- Let them know how you feel.

Also
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/tell_congress_dont_extend_the_bush_tax_cuts_for_the_wealthy

[stevendedalus3]

01:04 PM on 09/23/2010

Good, maybe now they'll call back Laura Tyson to monitor Geithner.

[sus2222]

10:57 AM on 09/23/2010

" Larry is THIS your homework? Larry is this your homework???
You know what happens when you F___ some one in the A** Don't you Larry???!!! "

[sposton]

09:32 AM on 09/23/2010

Read Edward Luce's piece in today's Financial Times:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0611a72a-c66f-11df-8a9f-00144feab49a.html

What do you think?

[guveqzero]

03:29 AM on 09/23/2010

Why not pick someone that will work for the people for a change? Why does business deserve such unconditional support?

[tribilin219]

05:44 PM on 09/22/2010

Run Rat Run ! Don't wait till November, Run Now! The rest of the Rat's are not waiting !

[NOSMAVAN]

05:24 PM on 09/22/2010

"Throwing the bums out" in November may make some of us feel good 'till December, but
what then? Does anyone really believe that replacing "bums" with Palin, O'Donnell, Paul etc. types is going to accomplish anything?
We would be better off to tone down the hysterics, take a good look at how much of the decade-long Bush/Cheney disasters WERE repaired or stopped from causing further damage, - NOTWITHSTANDING ROUND THE CLOCK REPUBLICAN OBSTRUCTION -
and consider very carefully who the "bums" really are.
And while we're on the subject - are we to conclude from the TeaParty's almost exclusive "endorsement" of Republicans, that there are no "bums" amongst their ranks?
I mean not one?
Strange, isn't it?
NOSMAVAN

[sus2222]

11:01 AM on 09/23/2010

Hey, Let's carefully VOTE OUT losers, OBSTRUCTIONISTS. BOUGHT & PAID FOR LACKEYS,
and jerks that you don't trust.
Keep the rest ( for now) and VOTE IN some competent people ( no witches).
EVERYONE VOTE !

[NOSMAVAN]

12:42 PM on 09/23/2010

EXACTLY ! The solution is not to throw out the baby with the water, even though that knee-jerk reaction is -seemingly - the easiest. Take the time and consider what the long-term devastation would be if Palin, O'Donnell, Paul etc. types are put in charge; the 8 years of Cheney/Bush will look like the golden age.

The long-tern SOLUTION is for us, the voters, to insist that the BRIBERY ends.
For the BRIBERY to end, the power of the LOBBIES must be curtailed.
For that to happen, BIG MONEY must be taken out of politics.

When we have a situation where a candidate is willing to finance her Senatorial campaign to the tune of 120 MILLION dollars of "her own money",considering the U.S. Senator's salary to be a mere fraction thereof, it becomes clear that our system is broken beyond repair. (Why not just sit around a table and start bidding - the highest bidder wins the seat)

Anyone in the middle class who believes that a multi-millionaire is going to look out for the middle class, is either incredibly naive or incredibly stupid.

Don't just be mad - be mad at the real clplrits and channel your anger positively. Replacing a crook with an idiot, witch or another crook of a different party is not the answer.
NOSMAVAN.

[Lock Piatt]

04:56 PM on 09/22/2010

After the loss of millions of jobs and Obama saying to the unemployed that the jobs are not coming back, he is now after almost two years changing economic teams. To late for all those losing their homes and jobs today and for the foreseeable future.

Thanks for all the stimulus money that they wasted on Union pension plan bailouts and government job saving programs. Not a penny for the private small businesses to keep a few valued employees through the down turn.

Believers in big government that gets in bed with big business (autos, insurance, banks, wall street, Unions and other special interest groups) have a problem getting the every day person to think they actually give a damn about what happens at their dinner table.

Send the bums packing in November

[Culturegeek]

04:50 PM on 09/22/2010

That wouldn't happen to be the same Harvard economist Larry Summers who penned this little gem:
http://www.whirledbank.org/ourwords/summers.html
would it?

[rybalaw]

04:08 PM on 09/22/2010

we need Jim Cramer in that position booya

[ConnectedTraveler]

04:06 PM on 09/22/2010

Exit Summers, enter Jamie Dimon (CEO of JPMorgan Chase).

Out of the fire and into the frying pan.