April 6, 2009

Larry’s Problems

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Ezra Klein comments on the recent disclosures of Larry Summers’ Croesus-like wealth, garnered in the years before he went to work for the White House:

We now know that in 2008, Summers received more than $5 million from the hedge fund D.E Shaw and more than $2.7 million in speaking fees from other Wall Street firms — including $135,000 for a single appearance before Goldman Sachs. These are sums that would make Tom Daschle positively blush, and they likely would have posed a serious threat had Summers been named Secretary of the Treasury.

Really?  Robert Rubin ran Goldman Sachs.  Paul O’Neill was CEO of Alcoa.  John Snow was CEO and chairman of CSX.  Henry Paulson was another Goldman CEO.

Every one of these gentlemen make Larry Summers look like a pauper.  So why would petty cash levels of consulting and speaking fees have caused him any headaches?  I thought his problem wasn’t money, but his deeply held belief that girls can’t do long division and we should ship all our toxic waste to Chad.  In the face of that, who cares about a lousy few million bucks?

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That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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