New way of putting it after the other thread got derailed:
re Larry Summers—my read of his wiki page and history of controversies is that he’s a power player who keeps his cards close to his chest and is perfectly willing to wear political attire that imply he’s friendly, but when it comes down to it, he’s inclined towards not seeing all humans as deserving a fair shake; the core points of evidence for this concern are his association with epstein and his comments about sending waste to low income countries. He’s also said things about other things, but those became a distraction when I brought them up and I don’t think they’re material to the point: that I think you can’t read his friendliness from what labels he gives himself, infer his intentions only from what policies he’s advocated and implemented relative to counterfactual for who else could have filled the positions he’s held.
I deleted my portion of the previous thread because it was unproductive and wasting my brain space, but dr_s’s reply and Linch’s reply get at the core of what I’m hoping gets communicated to the community, which I’ve attempted to restate here.
his comments about sending waste to low income countries.
Wikipedia describes those as:
In December 1991, while at the World Bank, Summers signed a memo that was leaked to the press. Lant Pritchett has claimed authorship of the private memo, which both he and Summers say was intended as sarcasm.[19] The memo stated that “the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that.[19] … I’ve always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly underpolluted.”[20] According to Pritchett, the memo, as leaked, was doctored to remove context and intended irony, and was “a deliberate fraud and forgery to discredit Larry and the World Bank.”[21][19]
Generally, judging people by what they said over three decades ago is not very useful. In this case, there seems to be a suggestion that it was a joke.
Hanging out with Epstein is bad, but it does not define a person who does lots of different things.
infer his intentions only from what policies he’s advocated and implemented relative to counterfactual for who else could have filled the positions he’s held.
infer his intentions only from what policies he’s advocated and implemented relative to counterfactual for who else could have filled the positions he’s held.
“I am certainly no left wing ideologue, but I think something wrong when taxpayers like me, well into the top .1 percent of income distribution, are getting a significant tax cut in a Democrats only tax bill as now looks likely to happen,” wrote Summers.
“No rate increases below $10 million, no capital gains increases, no estate tax increases, no major reform of loopholes like carried interest and real estate exchanges but restoration of the state and local deduction explain it.”
Especially given that he’s on the board of a VC firm advocating for closing the carried interest loophole suggests that does not only see his own economic self-interests as important.
New way of putting it after the other thread got derailed:
re Larry Summers—my read of his wiki page and history of controversies is that he’s a power player who keeps his cards close to his chest and is perfectly willing to wear political attire that imply he’s friendly, but when it comes down to it, he’s inclined towards not seeing all humans as deserving a fair shake; the core points of evidence for this concern are his association with epstein and his comments about sending waste to low income countries. He’s also said things about other things, but those became a distraction when I brought them up and I don’t think they’re material to the point: that I think you can’t read his friendliness from what labels he gives himself, infer his intentions only from what policies he’s advocated and implemented relative to counterfactual for who else could have filled the positions he’s held.
I deleted my portion of the previous thread because it was unproductive and wasting my brain space, but dr_s’s reply and Linch’s reply get at the core of what I’m hoping gets communicated to the community, which I’ve attempted to restate here.
Wikipedia describes those as:
Generally, judging people by what they said over three decades ago is not very useful. In this case, there seems to be a suggestion that it was a joke.
Hanging out with Epstein is bad, but it does not define a person who does lots of different things.
infer his intentions only from what policies he’s advocated and implemented relative to counterfactual for who else could have filled the positions he’s held.
So what did he advocate lately? Things like:
Especially given that he’s on the board of a VC firm advocating for closing the carried interest loophole suggests that does not only see his own economic self-interests as important.