Larry Summers

Lawrence Henry Summers is one of the most influential and combative American economists of his generation. He was the 71st U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, chief economist of the World Bank, the 27th president of Harvard University, and director of the National Economic Council under President Obama. A John Bates Clark Medal winner who earned tenure at Harvard at 28, he became famous for the 'secular stagnation' thesis and for loudly warning, against the consensus, that the 2021 stimulus would ignite inflation. In late 2025 and early 2026, the release of his email correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein triggered a rapid unwinding of his public roles.