Summers's Recipe for a Strong Economy

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on December 18 and a speech at the Brookings Institution on December 19, former University president Lawrence H. Summers said the Bush administration is not doing enough to jolt the economy out of its present sluggish state.

Summers suggested injecting $50 billion to $75 billion into the economy through a combination of tax cuts and spending measures, including extending unemployment insurance and increasing food-stamp benefits.

His prognosis for the economy going forward was not optimistic. “I believe that slow growth is a near certainty, that a recession is more than a 50% chance, and that there’s a distinct possibility of a more serious recession that will lead to the worst economic performance since the late 1970s and early 1980s,” the Journal story quoted him as saying.

Summers, a former Treasury secretary who worked in the Clinton administration, is now the Eliot University professor. He is also associated with D.E. Shaw Group, a hedge-fund manager.

Read the Wall Street Journal account or the Washington Post account, or get the speech text on the Brookings Institution website.