The Scapegoat

Ezra Klein's take away from Noam Scheiber's profile of Larry Summers:

[Scheiber's reporting on] the administration's internal discussions -- informed by an array of off-the-record sources -- is also the latest in a seemingly endless series of leaks that have isolated Geithner and ensured that he will bear full burden if the banking system goes into cardiac arrest. That may be an accurate apportionment of blame. But it's also been weirdly, noticeably, concerted.

That may be the administration creating a contingency plan that they can activate amidst a catastrophe or it may be that Geithner has some serious enemies who know how to use the press (I hear the latter, incidentally). Either way, everyone says Geithner needs more Assistant Secretaries, and that's true, but it also seems he needs a couple more communications people. Something has really gone awry in his press strategy.