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Posts Tagged ‘central planner’
September 12th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Former Obama Economist Recommends 10 Year Plan, Soviets Envious

Larry Summers, the economist whose resume includes helping create the kind of mortgage default swaps that crashed the financial system, being fired as President of Harvard for sexist remarks about female scientists, and resigning in disgrace as his infrastructure-heavy stimulus package failed, is back with a plan only a Soviet central planner could love.

Writing for Newsweek (itself an entity that’s seen better days), Summers tells his former boss, “Mr. President, We Need a 10 Year Plan.” Give Summers credit for brashness; in Soviet Russia the Communist Party considered it a success if it could make good on any of its 5 year plans.  (It never did.)

I’ll use Summers’ piece as an excuse to do something otherwise thought impossible: praise President Barack Obama for firing at least one bad economist.

It’s not about central planning, Larry; it’s about incentives.  Reform the tax code and streamline regulations with incentives for hiring and producing, and the economy will grow.