Summers: Financial Train Wrecks Mark A Generation

If you had any doubt that this is the Recession Generation, just take it from Larry Summers. The White House economic adviser is scheduled to address the Economist's Buttonwood Gathering in New York today. The White House sent over Summers' prepared remarks, including this bit (links added):

Think about it. The last generation has seen:

• The Latin American debt crisis
• The 1987 stock market crash
• The savings and loan debacle
• The Mexican financial crisis
• The Asian financial crisis
• The collapse of LTCM
• The bursting of the dot-com bubble
• And now the financial crisis that began in 2007.

One crisis every three years.

Surely a system that produces this many accidents and accidents this severe is a system that is in very much need of reform.

In the prepared remarks, Summers goes on to praise the House Financial Services Committee for moving to regulate derivatives and makes no mention of the exemption for 98 percent of banks from independent exams by a new consumer protection agency.