Larry Summers

Today’s nomination of Dartmouth president Jim Yong Kim to be president of the World Bank was a narrow escape. There was a chance that President Obama might select a really qualified person: Lawrence Summers, who was often viewed as the lead candidate. But he was obviously unfit: He is a former secretary of the Treasury Department and an award-winning economist. Thus he was of course disqualified.

Jonah Goldberg: "Most Boring Guy Wins Most Boring Debate?"

James Pethokoukis: "11 stunning revelations from Larry Summers’s secret economics memo to Barack Obama"

Larry Summers, the just-departed White House economic adviser, says today’s credit crunch has a new culprit. “In the early days of the crisis, there was clearly a problem with lenders being unable to lend even to creditworthy borrowers,” he says in an interview in The International Economy magazine. But no more.

It’s the policies, stupid. That should be the guiding light for everyone trying to figure out the course of the U.S. economy for the rest of the year.

At Monday's town hall in Washington, President Obama was asked whether his top economic adviser, Larry Summers, and his Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, would be staying through the end of this term. Obama's answer makes one think the answer is no:

Ever since I read George Plimpton’s Paper Lion in high school, I’ve been a huge fan of “stunt journalism.” This is the type of feisty reportage where a writer tries out for a professional football team, or takes a crack at conducting a symphony orchestra, and then writes a lighthearted article about his experiences.

A new jobs report comes out tomorrow morning. The White House is already trying to spin the numbers. Economic adviser Larry Summers says the employment situation may have worsened in February because of the weather. Hudson Institute economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth says that's baloney:

On March 5, we might find that jobs were lost and the unemployment rate rose in February. But that will be because of the continued uncertain direction of economic policy—including the possibility of tax increases, high deficits, environmental regulation, and expensive healthcare reform—and not because of the weather.

Whatever the February report shows, though, there is also some good economic news.

How serious a document is the president's budget proposal? The establishment media do not seem to like it. The budget's long-term projections are enough to drive you to drink. No political faction is satisfied with the administration's proposals. Liberals do not like the freeze on their favorite part of the budget; conservatives do not like the budget's tax hikes and massive deficits. Even the White House has reason to be disappointed. According to its own budget, unemployment will be at 7.9 percent when Obama stands for reelection in 2012. Only a huge, unanticipated economic boom will produce enough tax revenues to delay the fiscal reckoning and improve Obama's political standing.