I re-watched the wonderful The Social Network movie during lockdown and especially the small cameo featuring Larry Summers as the President of Harvard university played by Douglas Urbanski. Summers came across as witty, jaundiced, impatient, irascible and very intelligent.
After my one and only encounter with Dr Summers in a sky rise hotel suite in 2013, I can confirm all those things. I was with Newsnight at the time and Britain was inching out of what many felt was a double dip recession after the financial crisis.
Larry Summer had the kind of CV which would make any special guest booker - in this case the now award winning Sam McAlister - salivate. An Ivy League professor at 28, Chief Economist at the Word Bank, and economic adviser to no fewer than three US presidents including three years as Treasury Secretary. He's credited with preventing the Mexican and Russian currency crises spreading to the rest of the world in the late 90's. He’s also (dis)credited with the deregulation of investment banks in that time - something which played a big role in the financial crisis a decade later.
Mr Summers wasn't there to talk about that though. He wanted to chat about what he felt the then UK coalition government was doing wrong in returning Britain back to growth. He felt that George Osborne's austerity plans had led to a cut in output because it had choked off consumer demand. He also hated the mortgage guarantees for homeowners. Current or future economists can decide who was right with the aid of that wonderful thing: hindsight.
The Professor Dr Secretary Lawrence Summers swept into the hotel suite on the 13th floor where my cameraman, producer and I had carefully prepared for his interview. He only shook hands when I proffered mine and after he had assumed his seat and was applying his own microphone. This might have been his 4th interview of the day and his thousandth as an economic guru. He was on his own and without a handler or publicist which was unusual.
I went through my questions about the health (or otherwise) of the UK and the Eurozone economies and the great man pontificated and pondered, giving lengthy and reasoned answers - great for a symposium but less good for a correspondent looking for a 20 second soundbite.
Then I came to the bit when I asked him about his role in what caused the Financial Crisis i.e. the debt- and risk fuelled boom by Wall Street banks that needed bailouts from taxpayers. As Treasury Secretary, he had told the US congress during the Clinton administration that investment banks could be trusted to regulate themselves. Even the President subsequently conceded a few years later that deregulating banks had caused the Great Recession.
His demeanour changed slightly as I started my question. On the surface he didn't scowl or bark or moan but his eyes began to assess me more intently. They were distant anyway but now they were ice cold.
‘Well it wasn't really as simple as you make it sound,’ he started. Then he abandoned the question and said what he really felt.
‘This was not on the approved list of issues we’re supposed to be talking about. Who said you could ask me about this stuff? Does Stephanie Flanders know you're asking me this.’
‘Stop filming. Stop that camera now!’ He barked at my cameraman colleague, who to this day still regrets doing the bidding of a guest rather than the suggestion of a producer or reporter which is the BBC protocol in such occasions.
He stood up and discarded the lapel mic. He reached into a pocket and turned back on the phone which we had asked him to leave off. That led to an embarrassing few minutes between the switching on and booting up of any smartphone. In that time he escalated his rant at me.
‘Do you even know who Stephanie Flanders is? She’s the editor of the Newsnight show and she would never have allowed these ridiculous questions from a nobody like you.’
We all froze. What do you do when a big name like Larry Summers is mid apoplexy? I tried to soothe things but probably made them worse.
‘I think people who have suffered as a result of reckless lending decisions taken by Investment banks need to ....’
‘I don't even know you.’ He barked as he went towards the window overlooking Tower Bridge and found Stephanie Flanders’s number. It went to voicemail. ‘Call me back please Steph. I’m with some guy called Joe Lynam and he’s out of his depth.’
‘I will tell Stephanie to take you off the programme. ’
Just to aid readers here. Stephanie Flanders is a friend. She was the Economics Editor for a few years on Newsnight and before that was one of the youngest and most talented members of Larry Summers' team of advisers during the Bill Clinton years. By 2008 though she had left Newsnight and was the main Economics Editor of the BBC. And for the record: reporters, correspondents and presenters can never hire or fire anyone in the BBC.
Luckily for me I had called up the Newsnight programme editor the night before, to go through the questions that I wanted to put to Mr Summers the following day. She concurred entirely that deregulation should be on the menu and urged me to push him hard on it, rather than simply give him airtime to push his book or whatever. It was another reminder of why BBC Editors are the best in the world and can't be ‘leaned on’ despite what conspiracy theorists might suggest.
‘Would you like to speak to the actual editor of Newsnight?’ I cheekily offered the great man. ‘I have her number if you wish to call her.’
I dialled the number and told my editor in an overly calm tone - as if to subtly signal to her that shit had already hit the fan and her job was to clean it up.
‘We might have a problem here,’ I said to her. ‘Mr Summers doesn't like my questions about Wall Street banks. He’s here with me now and wants to speak to you urgently’.
I could hear my colleague straighten up on the other end of the line - steeling herself for a bollocking. I handed my own phone to Summers who took it and verbally released the pause button on his previous tirade against me.
‘I mean, who is this guy? I’ve never heard of him.’
My astute editor calmed the rampaging Summers but the interview was over. He stormed out and waited on a call back from Steph.
When we got back to the edit suite, we decided to include both elements of the interview as best we could - despite the camera being turned off mid rant.
The final broadcast VT featured criticism of George Osborne but also mentioned the role he played in indirectly causing the reckless risk taking by the big banks.
I watched from home at 22:45 and waited to get a vicious phone call from LS or one of his acolytes. It never came.
The following day, I checked Mr Summers’ own website to see if he was bad mouthing me online.
Much to my surprise, he had posted a very positive tweet linking to his own website. It said he had been talking to the ‘BBC’s premier business correspondent Joe Lynam’ about the Eurozone crisis and how Britain was handling austerity.
In fact, it’s still on his website
I’m not sure whether Steph ever called him back that day.
I continue to follow his career with great interest.
FIN
