Today’s New York Times front pages a bizarre story about Larry Summers and his very strange “job” at powerhouse hedge fund D.E. Shaw. It seems that Larry was paid a few million over two years for working one day a week at Shaw. What did he do to earn this money? Well, that’s never made clear in the article, but the writers are at pains to point out that it was all perfectly legal. Larry and his sidekick Tim Geithner are now cooking up deals that will let Larry’s hedge fund buddies make big profits using taxpayer money. And, yes, this is all perfectly legal. Larry Summers knows how to sell political influence to the highest bidder, and his hands always stay perfectly clean. He gets paid $135,000 for a ONE DAY appearance at Goldman Sachs, and a few months later he is making decisions in the Obama administration that favor Goldman Sachs. It is all perfectly legal.
Meanwhile, at DKos, the Presidential Guard looks for more neat pictures of Barak and Michelle wowing Europe as the crickets chirp. Summers? Who is Larry Summers?