Former Treasury secretary Summers adapts his style

0 Comments | USA TODAY, June, 2009 | by David J. Lynch

WASHINGTON -- On a warm Monday in late April, the president dined with some of the sharpest critics of his handling of the financial crisis. Just that morning, one of his guests, Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman had complained in his New York Times column that the administration "will probably let the bankers off with nothing more than a few stern speeches."

For roughly 90 minutes, over plates of savory roast beef and the first lettuce from the new White House vegetable garden, President Obama and some of the nation's leading economists debated the fine points of bank restructuring and financial bailouts. The half-dozen attendees included another Nobel prize winner, Joseph Stiglitz; former Federal Reserve Board governor Alan Blinder; Harvard University's Kenneth Rogoff; and...