Larry Summers and Jeff Bezos Get Virtually No Scrutiny by the Media, Just Awe and Praise

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/larry-summers-and-jeff-bezos-get-virtually-no-scrutiny-media

The news in the last couple of weeks has had endless references to two people who we have been repeatedly told are brilliant: former Treasury Secretary and top Obama advisor Larry Summers and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The paeans to the genius of both men say a great deal about the quality of public debate in elite circles.

Larry Summers has been in the news because President Obama told a number of reporters of his desire to have Summers replace current Federal Reserve Board chair Ben Bernanke when his term ends in January. This caught many by surprise, since Janet Yellen seemed the obvious pick for this position.

In addition to having served the last two years as vice-chair at the Fed, Yellen had previously been president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, headed President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors, and been a member of the Board of Governors. Yellen also had an outstanding academic background, having been a professor at both Berkeley and Harvard. In addition, she would be the first woman to chair the Fed.

But Summers supporters countered that the country needed his brilliant mind. New York Times columnist David Brooks led the charge, telling the audience of an NPR show about Summers' "meta-cognition skills," which Brooks defined as his ability to know what he doesn't know.

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. At least Bezos is extremely competent. Parasite Summers is shub with better elocution. n/t

[Enthusiast]

2. David Brooks, lol......nt

[bullwinkle428]

3. Did anyone ever bother to ask Bezos the genius how he expected to make money

not taking into account the shipping costs of 50 lb. bags of dog food? (cough*pets.com*cough)



K&R.

[Ed Suspicious]

4. To be fair, it takes a whole lot of losing, oftentimes, before winning big. I think of the image I

see on Facebook about how many shots Michael Jordan missed.

[CanonRay]

5. The beltway takes care of its own

and fuck the rest of us.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. Look, the President just isn't comfortable with women being in charge of economic stuff

He's entitled to his feelings.

[marmar]

7. k/r

[Ian_rd]

8. And if anything bad is said, it's about his apparent bad attitude toward women, or maybe everyone

... without a mention of how he was a central figure in the economic meltdown of 2007-2008 and the government response to it of a massive taxpayer giveaway to Wall Street.

[Doctor_J]

9. Big Media is part of the government

This has been abundantly clear for 20 years. As Amy Goodman says, "If we did have state-run media, would you actually be able to tell the difference?" Obama wants Summers to be Fed chief, so Big Media is on board.