“I’m very excited,” Summers said. “I feel even more fortunate in being entrusted with this responsibility as I’ve had a chance to observe the strength and quality of the university community.”
In the Limelight
Summers is back at his residence in Maryland today, but he had been in Cambridge this week, in part in order to attend a Kennedy School of Government (KSG) conference on the economic policy of the last decade.
Summers was a panelist at a Institute of Politics event Wednesday night, a panel to which he had committed himself before he was selected as president.
Moderated by KSG Dean Joseph S. Nye Jr., the panel also included Stanley Fischer, first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Allan Meltzer, the former chair to the International Financial Institution Advisory Commission to the U.S. Congress and Brad DeLong and Barry Eichengreen, University of California-Berkeley economists.
The panel began in good humor, as Nye joked that he would be introducing his soon to be new boss.
“If there’s one thing you learn it is that introductions of your boss always sound like flattery,” Nye joked. But in the end, Nye said to laughter that “like anyone, Larry, you’ll only get ten minutes.”
The panel provided observers the chance to see the new Harvard president, a world-class college debater and an intellectual prize-fighter, in action. In his presentation, which ran well over the allotted ten minutes, the former Secretary of the Treasury spoke without notes, outlining some of what he saw as the legacies of the Clinton administration.
Summers displayed his mettle during exchanges with Meltzer, who harshly criticized aspects of America’s policy in response to the financial crises of the past decade.
The most animated of the listeners, Summers fidgeted and at times communicated exasperation through facial gestures .
When each speaker had finished their presentation, Nye offered Summers the chance to respond to Meltzer. With a smile on his face Summers called aspects of Meltzer’s argument factually inaccurate and dissected its failures.
In a question and answer session after the presentations, audience members posed question to all of the panelists, but there was a clear focus on Summers.
Most of the questions focused on Summers’ perspective on economics, but at least one had a distinctly Harvard flavor.
A Harvard graduate first exhorted Summers to be a mensch, the Yiddish word for a person of integrity, and then asked him if he was going to use Harvard’s endowment for “the common good or for special interests.”
Summers responded that Harvard would use its funds to “pursue the common good as it sees fit,” to which the audience responded both with applause and hisses.
After the panel, Summers lingered on the stage for half an hour as well-wishers had their photographs taken with the President-elect, chat and offered their assistance. Summers assured each of them that he needed all of the help he could get.
Last night, Summers said he enjoyed the panel and the opportunity to catch up with old friends that it provided. “I hope, to the limited extent possible, to maintain my connection with economics and economic policy.”
—Staff writer David Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.