Larry Summers calls for job losses on TV and everyone made the same point

During a live TV broadcast, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said job losses will be important to build a “stronger economy” while helping the nation’s inflation pressures.

But now, people are angry because he appeared to be at a tropical destination.

On Friday (6 January), Summers, who is now a professor at Harvard University and a paid contributor to Bloomberg News, made an appearance on Bloomberg’s Wall Street Week news show.

He seemed relaxed as he dressed in a white button-down shirt while sitting in a chair as he spoke about the economy.

“These were good numbers; they showed a strong economy with slowing inflationary pressure insofar as there is a strong signal in them, it’s got to be encouraging,” Summers says in a clip shared to Bloomberg TV’s official Twitter.

“My instinct is not to make too much of the month-to-month fluctuations in the wage numbers, which I think are the source of encouragement that people are seeing of the various data on wages.

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“I regard the quarterly employment index as the gold standard, the Atanta [Federal Reserve Bank] information as the silver, and the monthly information that comes here as the bronze, simply because of all the composition changes,” Summers continues.

He also gave the example of an increased number of teenagers who begin to work and how that will “show up as slower growth in average hourly earnings.”

“But this is an encouraging number,” Summers adds.

Once people saw this clip, they felt the former US Treasury Secretary was a bit tone-deaf, especially since he appeared to be at a resort.

The scenery behind Summers appears to show a clear blue sky, numerous palm trees, and other greenery and a beach area.

One person on Twitter wrote: “As he chills at his tropical vacation spot spouting nonsense to the poors.”

“Sure is a nice island in the background!” another quipped.

A third wrote: “Look at this Old Banker sitting on a Tropical island talking down to the plebs telling us we have to deal with more unemployment when what we actually deal with is Bank Slavery and devaluing currency fueled by overprinting,” another added.

A spokesperson for Bloomberg News told The New York Post that Summers was vacationing with his family in Jamaica. And due to a sudden technical issue, they had to film outside instead, which they “regret.”

The unemployment rate in the US has reached a decades-high low, dropping to 3.5 per cent. It’s the same amount of joblessness seen before spring 2020.

As for the consumer price index, it grew to 7.1 per cent in November 2022.

Indy100 reached out to Bloomberg News and Summers for comment via email.

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