[lbo-talk] Summers

[Michael Perelman]

I had one personal experience with Summers while he was with the World Bank.  Many years 
ago, I organized a panel at the economics meetings.  It included Summers, Robert Pollin, 
Benjamin Friedman, and Robert Eisner.  Summers went ballistic on the panel to the shock of 
everybody in the room, denouncing mindless attacks on the United States.  His target was 
not Robert Pollin, but Friedman who was worried about excessive debt.
Afterwards, Summers kindly let me come to his hotel room to use his laptop to download 
files from my little Atari palmtop.  While I was there, he was on the phone screaming.  I 
could not help hearing his exchange.  It was probably somebody in the Pakistani government.  
Summers was tried to tell the other party that it was imperative that young girls be given 
of education.
Although I agreed with him on this matter and disagreed with him in his attack on Friedman, 
his personal manner remained the same.  A young prince of the economics profession, the 
nephew of two Nobel prize winners, tenured at Harvard and an early age, very productive in 
many areas of economics, and presumably used to a certain amount of deference.
It was very kind of him, however, to give me the use of his laptop.

-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu