Memo To Obama's Economic Team: Get Some Sleep!

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In a fawning new profile of White House National Economic Council Director Larry Summers in The New Republic, we discover that Summers' tired thinking extends to the way he views being tired.

Noam Scheiber reports that "Summers functions on exceedingly little sleep.... To power through the day, Summers relies on a punishing Diet Coke regimen. The combination of fatigue and extreme caffeine intake can produce the occasional verbal and physical tic: Summers is a chronic foot-tapper and sometimes turns over words and clauses like an engine that won't start."

The notion that driving yourself to the point of exhaustion and chronic foot-tapping is a sign of commitment and achievement is as obsolete as the belief that pumping more money into the same institutions that created the crisis will solve it.

Summers' old boss, Bill Clinton, once said, "Every important mistake I've made in my life, I've made because I was too tired."

Many Wall Street high-flyers could echo this -- if they had any self-awareness. Instead, they subscribe to our culture's veneration of exhaustion. Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi describes how Wall Streeters, when challenged, "talk about how hard they work, the 90-hour weeks, the stress, the failed marriages, the hemorrhoids and gallstones they all get before they hit 40."

The country would be better off if Wall Street execs and, more importantly, Summers and Treasury Secretary Geithner -- who, we are admiringly told, works 15 hours a day -- knocked off early and came back to work the next day refreshed... and with some fresh ideas.

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Noam Scheiber of The New Republic reports that White House National Exonomic Council Director Larry Summers "functions on exceedingly little sleep…"

Comments

[allonfla]

Good - Let americans see that the Obama admin is working tirelessly to save the economy. These are extremely high pressure positions and I would not want their job for anything.

[HC4BO]

He should take into consideration what just happened to the Freddie Mac CFO and HIT THE DARN BED Already ...

The country will Collapse regardless of his sleep schedule if it is DESTINED ....

[steve-oo]

Some might recall, that Bill Clinton, recently spoke about his concern for sleep deprivation on the hill.

He dwelled on it and identified it as a serious threat to efficiency and health.

[DonKrieger]

Arianna Comes off the Tracks:
Here is a link to my original response to Arianna's post including a ink to her "Morning Joe" interview.
http://donkrieger.blogspot.com/2009/03/arianna-huffington-comes-off-tracks-on.html
Here's a big chunk of the article:
This morning Arianna appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe to tout The Post's new initiative to promote investigative Journalism directed at the economy:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-tv/arianna-discusses-huffing_b_180680.html

She was critical of The President's efforts to correct our economic problems, basing her pronouncements on the opinions of several economists she trusts. She stated that our government bailouts are not transparent nor accountable. Please excuse that I am speaking from memory and paraphrasing. - Don

How can you form an informed opinion if the information is not available, i.e. there is "no transparency and no accountability?" How weakly reasoned is it to articulate her opinion based on others' opinions, all of which must, per her pronouncement about transparency, be uninformed by the facts?

She finished her comments by criticizing Larry Summers for appearing sleepy in public and the administration in general for being overworked and undermanned. This is the kind of insidious attack which serves no purpose other than to undermine public confidence. Not unexpectedly, one of the panel hosts chimed in with details about Larry Summers' dependence on Diet Coke.

When have we ever had a competent President and adminstration which was not overworked? ...

[GeorgeP922]

Bill Clinton famously slept 4-5 hours a night, retiring at 2 am and waking at 6am.

Dubya was famous for going to bed at 9 sharp and waking at 6, religiously.

What Obama needs is a BIGGER economic team, how would it hurt if Stiglitz and Krugman worked side by side with Summers?

[Politiking]

Obviously, more sleep did not help George W. Bush!

[AngieMom57]

Elizabeth Warren looks up and ready too.

[dmann32]

yeah they should but . . . I don't see how they can with the mountain of crap they have to deal with and what they have to answer for(If Summers didn't endorse "Nation of Whiners" Guy's plan we wouldn't BEEN in this mess . . .!) . . . But seriously it was embarrassing and came off tone-deaf . . .

[racetoinfinity]

Amen! It shows how far we are from a holistic view of life within the power elite-conventional wisdom. And we (a minority, but a critical mass of the most aware) awakened to holistic awareness, connections, and practices in the late 60s!

[AngieMom57]

Health is our only true wealth and power, corruption do not have a monopoly on it...

[klondiker]

I definitely see Arianna's point about the importance of getting enough sleep and rest.

But, here's my personal experience: I currently attend a pretty competitive Ivy League school, and I have always felt that I wasn't smart enough to compete on basis of brains alone. So, I try to make up for that by working extra hard.

[kahapeterson]

Recently finished my MBA on top of a full time job. I quickly realised and that nothing very productive gets done after 11 pm at night. Heck go to bed. Get at least 6 or 7 hrs sleep. Go for a run, shower, eat then get back to work.

[aweissnet]

Maybe hyped up on diet coke/caffeine and losing their grip on rational thinking. as well of loss of memory would account for overly optimistic thinking while making stupidly repetitive and redundant mistakes.

[chibbles]

They're workign too hard. They're not working hard enough. Which is it? Depends on the writer.

[AngieMom57]

Nope, depends on the person you are observing and the circumstances around the observation...correct me if I'm wrong.

[MDT831]

Clinton is right. The problem identified in your post, however, is of even greater significance. In order to work at the optimal efficiency a person has to be willing to stop and rest. This takes confidence. An insecure person will work and work, spinning his wheels, because he's not secure enough to stop. Is that type of manic personality anyone wants making difficult decisions? Not on my dime.

[magnolialiberal]

You are absolutely correct. Insecure people want to be the people we just cannot do without, secure people know how to manage their resources, their health, their staff. This is stupid. Teamwork is required to solve our problems, and anyone who does not take care of themselves is letting down the team.

[tailgateshirts]

if the repubs would let people get confirmed within treasury maybe they can have a team!

[uoiltl]

Last administration slept through eight years, except for eating and going to bathroom.
Look at what their deep sleep down for the country! Adrianne has become like mainstrean jounalists, complaining about everything (equals nothing) about the current adminstration, while they work hard to fix economy.

[BlackSwan13]

GEithner, Summers, Paul Volcker working hard to fix things.

They think they can tinker with the quack economics that they helped create.

If that is fixing, I think I know a witch doctor that can heal your cancer.

[impik]

They're working hard, they're fighting to fix things.

[ChiProgressive]

While getting rest is vital to making good decisions, Obama should start by replacing his team with the people that saw this coming and tried to do something about it.

When you pick the people who either took part/did nothing to stop this mess to fix it, what do you expect to get as a result?

Even the Europeans are say enough already with shoveling money at these crooks.

Break up these financial entities into the separate entities they once were, pre-1980s style.