Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Summers.

Presumably there is something behind Harvard President Larry Summers' precarious position apart from his winning personal style, but the coverage I see isn't telling me what. Readers who are members of the Harvard Corporation are invited to tell all in the comments.

eta: Reuters says he will resign.

eata: Now he has resigned. Greg Anrig remembers a good deed. Otto remembers Andrei Schliefer (and if you don't know what he's talking about, click through -- it's remarkable). Brad DeLong reads his resignation letter.

Comments:
Larry holds his position simply by dint of the fact that he has secured commitments that future offspring of all Lord Jeff alumni will matriculate in Cambridge.
 
That, and the continuing adulation of feminist scholars everywhere. ("Who's afraid of Naomi Wolf? Larry is.)
 
Students seem overwhelming behind as per this student blog something like 70% support.
 
Although I don't know what's going on in Cambridge, I do know that what Harvard's students think is almost entirely irrelevant to whether or not Summers will be around.
 
How high do we put the odds that Summers returns as Treasury secretary in the next (Democratic) administration? Or would he turn down such a non-advancing career move to hold out for something like head of the World Bank.
 
He says he's going to take a sabbatical and then return to Harvard as a professor. I would think that that would be boring and intolerable, but since I'm not as smart as he is, what do I know? I wonder about the extent to which this whole saga has marred his stature for future jobs like head of the World Bank. Given his problems winning friends and influencing people at Harvard, would you pick him to run an institution like the World Bank?
 
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