Should-Read: Larry Summers: Economy under Trump: Plan for the Worst

Should-Read: Larry Summers: Economy under Trump: Plan for the Worst: “There has not been so much anxiety about U.S. global leadership or about the sustainability of market-oriented democracy at any time in the past half-century…

…Many chief executives are coming to believe that, whatever the president-elect’s infirmities, the strongly pro-business attitude of his administration, combined with Republican control of Congress, will lead to a new era of support for business, along with much lower taxes and regulatory burdens. This in turn, it is argued, will drive major increases in investment and hiring, setting off a virtuous circle of economic growth and rising confidence. While… such a scenario looks more plausible today than it did on Election Day, I believe that it is very much odds-off. More likely is that the current run of happy markets and favorable sentiment will be seen, with the benefit of hindsight, as a sugar high…. The new U.S. president will be operating on a weak political foundation… unlikely to be able to deliver the results he has promised to key constituencies… likely to take dangerous gambles in the international arena. This makes it probable that a cycle of growing disillusion, disappointment and disapproval will set in within a year…