Since his resignation in June 2006, former University President Lawrence H. Summers has traveled the world offering economic advice. Closer to home, the former secretary of the Treasury has gained attention for urging the United States government to institute a stimulus package to revive a stumbling economy. Currently a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, Summers spoke with The Crimson by phone this week to offer his reflections on the last two years since leaving office.

The Harvard Crimson: Do you prefer the life of a professor and academic to the life of a university president?

Lawrence H. Summers: I think there’s a season for everything in life. I thoroughly enjoyed leading the University, especially the opportunities it provided for interaction with students and especially the opportunity it provided to try to do new things in new ways... At the same time when it was clear that it wasn’t going to be possible to innovate in strong ways, I became very comfortable with the judgment that it was much better for me to return to what’s been my primary professional passion of economic analysis and public policy.

I’m very much engaged in what I’m doing now and particularly enjoying the freedom to be able to speak and argue freely without having to be concerned with anything other than the intellectual quality of the argument.

THC: Where have you been traveling?

LS: I have taken a number of trips to meet with policy-makers. I visited China in the late fall and spent time with the central bank and people in the finance ministry and people involved with their development....Over the course of the spring, I spent some time in India discussing, among other things, issues related to reserve management and globalization issues more generally. I also visited Mexico where I discussed issues related to globalization and trade with President [Felipe] Calderon and the finance minister and the central bank governor...And then I’ve also been in Europe several times participating in various kinds of international fora.

THC: Do you have more or less contact with undergraduates now?

LS: Less. And that—more than Faculty meetings—is something I miss about the time when I was president. But I really enjoyed teaching the globalization course [Economics 1400: “The Contents of Globalization”] this semester. And through the lunches and office hours, and the barbecue I hosted at my home, I felt like I was able to engage at least with a group of undergraduates who seemed to be intensely curious about things that I think are very important....Certainly, I hope to teach undergraduates for years to come.

THC: How is your book on higher education coming?

LS: The book will be on great research universities and their mission. It’s not an autobiography or a memoir, but it obviously will draw on my experience as president of Harvard in developing its arguments about great contributions that universities can make to the broader society. I think we’re some time away [from publishing]. I certainly expect that the publisher will have the manuscript sometime within the next year and I expect it will be published soon after that.

THC: Will it be controversial?

LS: I think its better for the book to be discussed when it’s published than in advance. I wouldn’t be writing a book if I didn’t think I had some interesting things to say.

THC: How are your interactions with professors now?

LS: My office is in the [Harvard] Kennedy School and a pretty large fraction of my interactions are with the professional schools and with members of the economics department, and many of the younger scientists, and those are groups with whom I always felt very comfortable and supported....So I haven’t had much interaction with the segments of the Faculty who were most hostile when I was president. But when there have been meetings, I think there’s a sense on both sides that what’s past is past.

THC: Did you get involved in the free speech debate that gripped some professors this fall?

LS: I’m staying a million miles away from Faculty politics. I believe very much that freedom of speech and argument is a central value in an academic community, but it is a serious, serious mistake to confuse freedom of speech with freedom from criticism, and part of free speech is the ability to balance ideas or cast doubt on ideas with which one disagrees....

THC: Do you talk to University President Drew G. Faust about University issues?

LS: As I think inevitably would be the case with anybody who is former president of the University...I’ve responded from time to time to requests for advice from President Faust and the deans of various schools. But in general, I haven’t wanted to be involved in University policy so things have actually worked out quite comfortably.

THC: What are you researching now?

LS: I’ve been working primarily on sets of issues surrounding globalization and the income distribution and patterns of inequality, particularly questions about whether the trends towards increased inequality are accelerating. I’ve also been working in a more applied sense on the causes of the financial crisis...I’m excited about the work that [economics] professor [N. Gregory] Mankiw and I are doing together editing the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity....By soliciting the papers and working with manuscripts, I feel like we have an opportunity to draw younger scholars into doing empirical research on economic policy in a way that can inform economic policy. I’ve also enjoyed writing a monthly column for the Financial Times that gives me a way to raise arguments and try to open up debate in the public-policy sphere because the columns are reprinted all over the world in a variety of different languages. It gives me a very nice forum to reach people.

—Interview conducted and edited by Staff Writer Christian B. Flow.