Discussing the Obama administration's plan to boost economic recovery, with Lawrence Summers, National Economic Council director and CNBC's Maria Bartiromo (7:34).
Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council, tells CNBC's Maria Bartiromo it's going to take a long time to get through the economic slowdown (15:52).
Summers is a nasal drone. How he became a debate champion at MIT is beyond comprehension. Wall Street Larry was on with Maria Bartiromo this afternoon. We have both CNBC clips after the jump.
From Reuters/CNBC:
There are some encouraging signs in the U.S. financial sector, but it has a "long way to go" to work through strains in the system, Lawrence Summers, U.S. President Barack Obama's top White House economic policy aide, said on Tuesday. Summers, speaking to a meeting of fund managers, bankers and industry groups in New York, said that the economy, after being on a steep downward slope, is now in a "flat patch which may have some uphill on it ... but there is still a lot of uncertainty." "If you look at the early part of this year, you couldn't find anything good," he said, referring to the economy. "Now there is a much more mixed picture." Summers cautioned that after suffering through one of its worst years in history last year, the financial sector will be in a state of repair for "a significant interval." U.S. banks, insurers and other financial companies are under tremendous stress as they fight to shore up balance sheets beaten down by the credit crunch and outsized losses from the housing crisis. Summers' comments came after prominent investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc reported a better-then-expected quarterly profit, bolstered by substantial risk taking, and after the bank's shares had more than doubled from their record low of $47.44 last Nov. 21. "There are some encouraging signs in the financial sector," Summers said, "but it's important to understand we have a long way to go in working through the strains in financial system." Asked whether he considered it a favorable development that Goldman Sachs plans to quickly repay the bailout funds it received from the government, Summers said he would not comment on specific companies. Analysts warn that letting Goldman Sachs pay back its bailout funds could create a two-tier banking system divided by those seen as reliant on government handouts and those that are not. It would also clear the way for Goldman to resume paying the big salaries and bonuses that have angered taxpayers whose money is being used for bailouts. "More generally, nobody intends the TARP to be permanent," Summers said, adding that in the long-run the Obama administration clearly wants to see a banking system that does not rely on government help. "There is nothing we would like more than for the financial system to function robustly. If this can happen without need of government involvement...that would be welcome."