It’s not for nothing that Jeff Madrick in 2013 bemoaned Larry Summers’ reported consideration for chairman of the Federal Reserve as the prospect of “Milton Friedman as Fed chair.” Despite coming from a family chock-full of leading liberal economists, Summers moved rightwards in his economic views throughout the 1990s, under Robert Rubin’s tutelage.
- As Summers himself put it, “over time, as I studied economics myself and as the world evolved, I came to have grudging respect and then great admiration for him and for his ideas. No contemporary economist anywhere on the political spectrum combined Mr. Friedman’s commitment to clarity of thought and argument, to scientifically examining evidence and to identifying policies that will make societies function better.”
- This shift was evident in Summers’ deregulatory views on financial regulation and bank oversight.
- Summers’ rebrand culminated in the proclamation that “any honest Democrat will admit that we are now all Friedmanites.”