Larry Summers

So it makes it harder and worse for everybody.

And that's why most countries in the world have moved to having institutions based on independent central banking.

And you saw a bit of market response.

It wasn't a dramatic response.

market response last night, but it was a revealing one.

You saw short-term interest rates go down because people thought, gee, if it's so political, the Fed's gonna cut more.

You saw long-term interest rates go up because people thought we're headed for more inflation.

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.