David Walsh runs a nifty site called Economics Principals and it so happens that his present post is about Harvard’s President Summers (the subject of the penultimate post here). I recommend it.
Find his Summers column here
Here is a description of Mr. Walsh’s enterprise:
What is Economic Principals?
Economic Principals.com is an experiment in online economic journalism — a Web-based independent commentary on the production and distribution of economic ideas. It is not a blog. It is a shadow newspaper column.
What does EP cover?
EP reports on university economics, as it affects historical awareness, political debate and public policy. It seeks to put under-noticed economic journalism in touch with a wider audience. EP is not about the business cycle.
Who reads it?
Economists, journalists, managers, policy-makers, educators, lobbyists, investors, citizens — anyone interested in the connections between university economics and the rest of the world.
How many?
EP regularly reaches around 10,000 readers in 80 countries.
Don’t you find that essay more than a little oblique and question-begging? Warsh asserts that it’s obvious that Summers is wrong for Harvard without providing any specifics to judge whether Summers is right or wrong. I assume that the corporation had become alarmed by Harvard’s drift in the Rudenstine era and wanted Summers to come in and kick some ass–ideally, doing it without raising too much fuss, but doing it in any case. Well, that’s what they got.
It’s odd that Warsh quotes Hoxby but doesn’t quote Ed Glaeser or Claudia Goldin or Larry Katz or Steven Pinker or any of the other prominent supporters of Summers. I think we have a case of Boston’s insular culture getting to Warsh. It’s just not socially acceptable in Cambridge to point out that Summers has been right on ROTC, divestment from Israel, etc. and his critics wrong.