Larry Summers

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.

Is it really this president?

tweeting, saying things that don't turn out to be exactly accurate on a real estate-related loan application as being the end of the world?

That is a sin of which the president has stood accused on many, many occasions, has been found guilty by courts, has engaged in settlements, has paid fines.

And so if somehow

misleading statements on loan applications are disqualifying, I think that that's a brush that should paint very, very broadly.

Look, I don't think we have yet had access to all the facts.

I don't think the president has access to all the facts.

And that's why jumping to any conclusion without any sort of process, without any sort of fact finding, was, I think, completely inappropriate.

So I don't feel in a position to judge the results of lawsuits.

But I can judge the process.

And I have to say, I don't understand quite what Secretary Besant was saying.

The view that previous administrations have had is that the independence of the Fed is in part reflected in statute, that it reports to the Congress that it is not part of the executive branch, what the Supreme Court reports.

recognized when it distinguished the Fed from other agencies with respect to the president's ability to hire and fire.