Dirty Larry Comes Out Firing

Larry Summers
Summers has been impressively outspoken on a number of important topics related to the Trump II agenda, including the roller-coaster tariff regime; the president’s attacks on the Federal Reserve and Jay Powell, its chairman; and the administration’s scorched earth pressure campaign against elite private educational institutions, including his alma mater. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
April 23, 2025

Larry Summers, the last Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, first director of the National Economic Council under Obama, and onetime president of Harvard, is well known to the faithful readers of Dry Powder. He remains a tenured professor of economics at Harvard, as well as a newish OpenAI board member, and a part-time resident of Arizona. Summers has also been impressively outspoken on a number of important topics related to the Trump II agenda, including the roller-coaster tariff regime; the president’s attacks on the Federal Reserve and Jay Powell, its chairman; and the administration’s scorched earth pressure campaign against elite private educational institutions, including his alma mater.