| By Lawrence H. Summers Last week I suggested that I felt sorry for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. He found himself forced by circumstance and his president to say and do things that undermined his and Treasury's credibility. I wish there was an external force that could be blamed for the secretary's comments on Monday, but … | | |  | | | | The latest economic and domestic policy from Wonkblog | | | | |  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. (Thomas Kienzle/AFP/Getty Images) By Lawrence H. Summers Last week I suggested that I felt sorry for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. He found himself forced by circumstance and his president to say and do things that undermined his and Treasury's credibility. I wish there was an external force that could be blamed for the secretary's comments on Monday, but they look from the outside like unforced errors. At Michael Milken's annual conference for investment professionals, he crowed to the bankers present that "you should all thank me for your bank stocks doing better." I cannot conceive of any of the 11 other secretaries I have known making such a statement. Leave aside the question of whether whatever credit is to be claimed should be claimed on behalf of the president. Since when is the stock price of banks the objective or the standard of success for economic policy? And when, as will inevitably occur, bank stock prices decline, will the secretary accept the blame? It was quite a day. Read the rest on Wonkblog.
Number of the day $1.5 billion. That is a rough estimate of the current estate-tax liabilities of the members of Trump's Cabinet. Max Ehrenfreund and Christopher Ingraham have more.
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