Larry Summers, the White House's most senior economic adviser, has announced he will resign and return to teaching at Harvard at the end of the year. The reasons behind his decision are not yet clear — some say he wanted to return to the university before he lost his tenure there, others that he was peeved not to be appointed chairman of the Federal Reserve — but the departure of the former Treasury Secretary will leave a gaping hole in Obama's economic team. Who should fill it? (Watch a Fox report about Summers' departure)
Time for a woman CEO in Obama's economic team: The Obama administration is "acutely aware" that all of its senior economic leaders are "white males with virtually no experience running a major business enterprise," say Glenn Thrush and Kendra Marr at Politico. Not only would hiring a female CEO improve the gender balance, but it would change the perception that "the White House is stocked with out-of-touch government and academic elitists."
"Woman CEO sought for Summers job"
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Not the time for big business in the White House: Business may be "clamoring for a CEO to get the gig," says James Pethokoukis at Reuters, but we need someone who is "more pro-market than pro-business." Now is not the time for "corporate pork." It's more essential to hire someone who can take a "realistic approach to China's anti-market trading position." A CEO isn't necessarily the best choice.
"More on Larry Summers leaving the White House"
There's no easy replacement: It will be incredibly tough to fill Summers's shoes, says Ezra Klein at The Washington Post. The senior economic adviser provided not only a "voice in Obama's ear," but ran the entire "White House economic policy process." Early word says that former Xerox chief Anne Mulcahy is a front-runner, with Summers' deputy Diana Farrell another possibility. But whoever gets it, "it's going to be a difficult job."
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