[gs17]

Reading

> I've always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly UNDER-polluted, their air quality is probably vastly inefficiently low compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City.

makes it feel like he was sincere about it not being a serious policy recommendation. I read it like Jonathan Swift recommending we eat Irish babies.

[cthalupa]

The problem is when you take into account his whole track record there's really not any reason to believe he doesn't sincerely mean that. He was a huge and influential proponent of Gramm–Leach–Bliley, yet after '08 went on the record as saying it was outrageous that the lack of regulation allowed this to happen... regulation that was in place prior to Gramm–Leach–Bliley. When the IMF chief economist warned of the '08 financial crisis years prior to this, Summers called him a luddite.

He also had an... interesting... time as Harvard president, where he set out to belittle Cornell West on a variety of issues, including some that were racially charged - specifically saying that West having a rap album was an embarrassment to Harvard. West decided to return to Princeton after that. Summers then later proposed men as having a higher population of people at the highest aptitudes to be a potential explanation for the lack of women in STEM, despite the science here being quite spotty.

I don't think there's really anything in his history that would garner giving him the benefit of the doubt here.