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Even if one conceded (and it's conceding a lot) that Summers was involved in bad things, one needs to consider the counterfactual. In a world where Summers had

Even if one conceded (and it's conceding a lot) that Summers was involved in bad things, one needs to consider the counterfactual. In a world where Summers had died in childhood, are we imagining that the USSR would not have collapsed? Where this collapse would've lead to some sort of social democratic paradise? Or what? I mean, people aren't seriously arguing this, are they?

CPLX 5y ago
People are arguing that our post-Soviet policy was fucking insane and that Summers was a chief architect of it. It was wholesale looting that set world stability back for generations and it was justified on principles of mainstream neoliberal economics and implemented by that community's (at the time) golden child. It was one of several fundamentally catastrophic decisions of economic policy made in the 1990's that have their roots very firmly in academic economic orthodoxy. If anything I'm understating how bad it was and how much needless human misery was unleashed from this community of sociopaths.
- yanderekko 5y ago
  You're dodging the question. If Summers weren't around, how do you think events would have played out instead? If you'd conflate between Summers' influence and the overall influence of neoliberal ideology, that's really not fair. (And full disclosure, I think this goes both ways - everything bad that happened in Cambodia cannot be ascribed to Pol Pot, but I think there's a much better argument for his having a very personalized impact on these events than there is for Summers and the collapse of the USSR.)
  - CPLX 5y ago
    > You're dodging the question. If Summers weren't around, how do you think events would have played out instead? Dunno. Will some other neoliberal fuckhead be in charge or not?
    - yanderekko 5y ago
      Probably. I'd hope it's someone who understands causality and counterfactuals and opportunity costs and constrained optimization, at least..

CPLX 5y ago

People are arguing that our post-Soviet policy was fucking insane and that Summers was a chief architect of it. It was wholesale looting that set world stability back for generations and it was justified on principles of mainstream neoliberal economics and implemented by that community's (at the time) golden child. It was one of several fundamentally catastrophic decisions of economic policy made in the 1990's that have their roots very firmly in academic economic orthodoxy. If anything I'm understating how bad it was and how much needless human misery was unleashed from this community of sociopaths.

yanderekko 5y ago
You're dodging the question. If Summers weren't around, how do you think events would have played out instead? If you'd conflate between Summers' influence and the overall influence of neoliberal ideology, that's really not fair. (And full disclosure, I think this goes both ways - everything bad that happened in Cambodia cannot be ascribed to Pol Pot, but I think there's a much better argument for his having a very personalized impact on these events than there is for Summers and the collapse of the USSR.)
- CPLX 5y ago
  > You're dodging the question. If Summers weren't around, how do you think events would have played out instead? Dunno. Will some other neoliberal fuckhead be in charge or not?
  - yanderekko 5y ago
    Probably. I'd hope it's someone who understands causality and counterfactuals and opportunity costs and constrained optimization, at least..