Obama Bonding With Summers at Tennis No Ace for Fed Decision

When President Barack Obama dropped by Lawrence Summers’s going-away party in 2010, he presented his National Economic Council director with a pair of suspenders, a gag gift to help Summers hold up his perpetually sagging trousers.

The gesture was meant to tease Summers, known inside the West Wing for a mix of awkwardness, abrasiveness and brilliance, according to current and former administration officials, who say Obama regards him with both affection and exasperation.