Well, that's a relief.

[randomness]

From David Wessel's story in the Wall Street Journal:

Lawrence Summers pulled out of the contest to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve after weeks of public excoriation, forcing President Barack Obama to move further down the list of contenders to head the central bank.

Summers' letter to the President is available from the Wall Street Journal as a pdf.

Comments

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

That was a classy letter.

Lawrence Summers is a really really smart guy.

He's also an asshole.

He's kind of the Norman Osborn of economics.

[drwex]

Yeah, I startled my D&D players on Sunday by shouting "Yeah!" when I happened to be on Twitter and the news broke.

None of them understand why but this is a Very Big Deal. Obama essentially got his ass handed to him by three leftist Democrats in the Senate. There will be hell to pay at some point, but I'm glad people I like are finally standing up and pushing for things I want.

[contrariety.livejournal.com]

I am yay about this. For absolutely no solid policy reasons, I just loathe Larry Summers.

[frotz.livejournal.com]

...and he might not, by that reporting, pick Yellen, because he is annoyed. Annoyed??!!

What is this I don't even. Does not call for petulance.

[stolen-tea.livejournal.com]

This may be the first tactful thing I've seen him do...