LyrArc Article Gist
Larry Summers role in developing the Stimulus Plan, the plan that Geithner presented for the banking crisis, and in discussions on a whole range of other issues like housing and the budget. The President calls him Professor, or with his other policy wonks he calls them "propeller heads." Summers is quick to respond nowadays, to drop other things for instance to meet Speaker Pelosi, and is careful to let his boss decide and to give his boss credit. And the President understands his rough edges from Summers' experience at Harvard, and can say "you absolutely do" when Summers overstresses a point with the "I don't want to overstress this". On the lack of bipartisan support for the Stimulus plan in Congress, Summers says "politics are hard to predict", and he says Geithner's plan details when announced will show that it is "tough and ambitious", on the Stimulus Plan he says that the President "has got what I think is the right economic plan." A colleague Romer says Summers is a different person nowadays, with less of the rough edges. Others say he listens nowadays instead of lecturing.