Summers to Join Romer and Orzag as EX-advisors

Lawrence Summers

It wasn't exactly a shocker. Lawrence Summers, a key architect of President Obama's economic policies and a former secretary of the Treasury, announced today that he will leave his position as director of the president's National Economic Council by the end of the year and return to Harvard University, where he had a controversial reign as president. Here's what's important: The departure is almost certain to mean that the NEC will be headed by a less cantankerous figure -- one who'll serve as an honest broker between competing advisers. Summers is widely considered a brilliant economist, but he is anything but disinterested. His departure, coming so soon after the replacement of Christina Romer as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, guarantees that the president will head into the second half of his term with a very different economic team than the one that designed his current policies. Only Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner remains in place from the original top advisers. Read more here:

Summers to Join Romer and Orzag as EX-advisors