WASHINGTON — Amid deepening anxiety over the slow place of recovery from the recession, President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced the departure of one of his top economic advisers.
Lawrence Summers, known as a brilliant economic thinker with a prickly personality, will step down at the end of the year to return to Harvard University, where he had a controversial five-year stint as president.
He will be the third key member of Obama’s economic team to leave in a midterm election year in which the anemic economy could lead to large Democratic congressional losses in November.
The departure came a day after Obama signaled possible high-level departures — a common occurrence at the two-year point in a presidency. In a written statement, he praised Summers’ “brilliance, experience and judgment” as director of the National Economic Council.
White House officials said Summers’ departure had been planned and didn’t foreshadow a change in the administration’s economic direction.
The White House said it was open to appointing a successor from the corporate world. Obama has faced criticism that too few of his senior advisers have private-sector experience and that his administration is anti-business.
“The president will consider all able candidates who can help build on our jobs agenda, from whatever sector they hail,” said Jared Bernstein, another member of the White House economic team.
Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, his former protege, have been lightning rods for critics of Obama’s economic policies. Last month, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Obama should ask for their resignations.
But House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said there was no need for the White House to change direction. He said he regretted the departure of Summers, with whom he worked on the recently enacted financial-reform law.
