Summers: A second Trump term would gravely damage the US economy
Larry Summers · Larry Summers: How the Fed screwed up; What a Trump win would do to the economy | E1024 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jun 12, 2023 · at 37:21
Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers assesses the economic trajectory of the United States under a potential second Donald Trump presidency.
0:00 / 0:52exact quote · 52.6s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“I believe very strongly that by undermining the rule of law, On which contracts exchange and property depend by alienating the rest of the world and by pitting some groups of Americans against other groups of Americans and devaluing the idea of unity and common aspiration. That a second Trump administration would do grave damage to the American economy for a sustained period.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Larry Summers
Summers: Fed cannot lower inflation to target without an economic downturn
“My own view, and I've said this many times, is that what Samuel Johnson said about second marriage is true about soft landings. They represent the triumph of hope over experience, and I don't think we're likely to be able to bring inflation down to its target …”
Summers: Europe is a museum, Japan a nursing home, China a jail
“It's a joke, but not without some element of truth to say that Europe's a museum, Japan's a nursing home, China's a jail, and Bitcoin's an experiment.”
Summers: Crypto ecosystem is primarily fueled by speculation and tax evasion
“Unfortunately, I'm not sure that's that large a part of the crypto ecosystem. When the ecosystem is fueling speculation, or when the objective is the circumvention of legitimate government regulation or tax obligations, that's where I become more skeptical abo…”
Summers: Fed should have raised rates earlier and stopped buying mortgages
“I would have recognized that Very substantially excess demand was developing. I would have moved to signal my awareness of that and to start putting my foot on the brakes much sooner than they did, and certainly as inflation was rising, as we were having a rec…”
Summers: Delayed spending of 2021 stimulus drove 2022-2023 strength and inflation
“Part of the reason why inflation accelerated through much of twenty-twenty-two was that it was still being spent in twenty-twenty-two, and some of it is still going to be spent in twenty-twenty-three, and that's part of why the economy has seemed so strong, ev…”
Larry Summers: The US Must Substantially Raise Tax Revenues
“Ultimately we are on an unsustainable path. And my view is that we're going to have to raise revenues quite substantially because I don't think there's going to be a lot of scope For cutting spending, given the way in which our population is aging, given the w…”