Eliot and Eric welcome Larry Summers, former president of Harvard University and former secretary of treasury in the Clinton administration.
They discuss why his prescient advice about the dangers of inflation were ignored by the Biden administration and whether or not Democrats have learned the lesson that inflation affects all Americans. They also touch on the prospects for the U.S. economy given Donald Trump’s misguided and haphazard policies—as well as the role Trump’s policies have played in the decline of the stock market and dollar and the increase in bond yields. They touch on the role that the loss of the U.S. reputation for being a rule-of-law nation might have on long-run prospects for the economy.
They also discuss Summers’s tenure as president of Harvard, his determination to participate in ROTC commissioning ceremonies, the danger of identity politics devolving into a “victimization Olympics,” his concerns about the future of the university, worries about antisemitism on campus, and general reflections on the role of universities on the nation’s public life.
Related link: Larry Summers on Conversations with Bill Kristol.
Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast cosponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.
