Larry Summers

So in part, it's rooted in law, and in part, it's rooted in tradition.

Secretary Rubin and I, I remember very well, told President Clinton that it was our advice to him that engaging in public debate with the Fed was a fool's game because the Fed wouldn't listen.

And so short term interest rates wouldn't be changed very much.

But the markets would listen as credibility was lost.

and long-term interest rates would rise.

And that's why we have an established tradition, which Secretary Besant has endorsed very recently, of administrations not engaging on the question of monetary policy and how interest rates should be set and at what level they should be set.

But we have an administration that is disregarding the superstructure of norms that has really been what has made our democracy and our economy so strong for decades.

This is of a piece with sending the FBI to former officials' homes.

with threatening people with criminal prosecutions.

And I think over time it runs very, very substantial risks for our national economy.

I don't think so.

I'm not.

I'm not an expert on the legalisms, but remember that whereas the Deputy Secretary of State reports to the Secretary of State, the governors of the Federal Reserve are not subservient to the chairman and don't report to the chairman.

So I think this is something that will be worked out in court.