Larry Summers

And you saw the dollar go down because even though you could earn a higher interest rate on the dollar, market judgment was that it was going to be a less valuable currency over time because of all the money that was going to be printed by a political Fed.

So it was a sign that we were looking more like a

an emerging market country.

And I think that's the way this is going to be read very broadly over time.

And if we know anything,

it's that these things don't happen smoothly.

It's like Hemingway said, how do you go bankrupt?

First slowly, then quickly.

And if we lose our credibility, if at a certain point our credibility tips over,

Only takes decades to grow a forest, but it takes only an hour to burn one down.

And credibility is a bit like that.

And we're putting ours at risk.

And it's made worse by a couple of things.

It's made worse by the fact that the president's proposals for monetary policy are outside of the reasonable range of debate.

You can argue as to whether we should cut rates 50 basis points or 100 basis points.

There is no one.

Outside of those politically attentive to the president who defends the idea that we should cut interest rates to anything like the one percent that the president has talked about.

No one.

That's not a serious idea.

And by the way, I just have to say this.