CONFIDENCE MEN Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President By Ron Suskind Illustrated. 515 pp. Harper/HarperCollins Publishers. $29.99. Bloated, portentous, reeking of self-/importance, Ron Suskind's ''Confidence Men'' is the most frustrating of books. A truly groundbreaking inside account of the first two years of economic policy...
WASHINGTON -- A new book claims that President Obama's response to the economic crisis was hampered by a White House economic staff plagued by internal rivalries, a domineering chief adviser and a Treasury secretary who dragged his feet on enforcing decisions with which he disagreed. The book, by Ron Suskind, a former Wall Street Journal reporter,...
In Andrew Goldman's interview of Larry Summers, my colleague Joseph Stiglitz is cited for saying Summers ignores arguments that he doesn't like. I have disagreed with Summers on several issues, but I have always found him ready to debate my views, even at Columbia, when, on the celebration of my 75th birthday, he took on me, Paul Krugman and...