Even Harvard Hates Larry Summers

The following refers to a Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. professor on the topic of Larry Summers, economic adviser and Svengali to the new Pres. Obama. From Larouche Pac. A prominent, long-established Harvard professor told EIR yesterday that Lawrence Summers was seen as a magically successful high priest in the religion of money, by those who worship money as their religion. He suggested that the fact that the economics profession of which Summers is a leader, uses incomprehensible language and irrational constructs, does not detract from but increases the respect and awe granted to him by those in power and by ignorant public opinion.

The professor remarked on the constant, unrelieved fear that gripped the faculty when dealing with Summers as Harvard's president. The fear stemmed both from Summers money-god status — largely acceded to by those who feared him — and his studied practice of insulting and humiliating lower-ranking personnel with whom he interacted. When the faculty was ready to vote on a motion of no-confidence in Summers, no one expected more than a handful to vote in favor of the resolution, because even tenured teachers had dreaded to speak up during his years of bullying. But a majority approved the motion, and this eventually led to Summers' resignation.

Money as god was clearly the religion of the Boston Brahmin-dominated board of the Harvard, which brought Summers in and sustained him as president for five years. The Brahmin directors saw as a brilliant success, the team of Summers and his protégé, Harvard behavioral economist Andrei Shleifer, not despite but precisely because they had looted and had assisted others to loot countless billions from Russia in the 1990s.

Lawfully, during Summers' reign, the Harvard endowment funds were invested in the speculative insanity pronounced sane by the worshipped authorities, and as a result the endowment plunged by billions. As the religion admits no imperfection, Summers was then naturally enough appointed to run the economic policy of the nation. Of course, Harvard lost a bundle in the crash, and now the reports are that they cannot finance the new science campus that they planned in the North Allston section of Boston, Mass., across the Charles River from Cambridge.