Portside

'The opposition to Larry Summers isn’t simply an objection to the old boys club. It represents an incipient but growing reaction against the old ways of doing business. Over the last 40 years, Democratic and Republican administrations have helped to build an economy that works remarkably well for the wealthiest Americanswhile the middle class sinks. Global banks and corporations have thrived while U.S. manufacturing has been devastated. Corporate and bank profits are at record levels while workers’ income share of the economy is at record lows. Big banks have been deemed too big to fail and too big to jail. Trillions have been spent to save them, while the middle class struggles to stay afloat. Increasingly the cloistered club and the revolving door seem in service less of the public than of the few. The pushback against the Summers nomination may be an inside-the-beltway scuffle, but it hints at a much more potent backlash.'

Katrina vanden Heuvel,
opinion writer, editor and
publisher of The Nation,
on the possible nomination
of Summers to the post of
chair of the Federal Reserve