Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- A lot of public discussion takes
place before the president nominates a new Federal Reserve Board
chairman. This time, that discussion has gotten unusually
heated.
Continuing economic difficulties are one reason. Another is
that Lawrence Summers, a top candidate, is a larger-than-life
figure -- unusually well-known and widely admired, but in some
circles controversial. The paradox is that those who know him
best, and who have worked with him most closely, are his biggest
supporters -- and that the objections are coming largely from
those who know him little or not at all. (Disclosure: Summers is
a colleague and a friend, and I co-taught a course with him last
spring.)
