DAVOS, Switzerland — Arguing that the jury is still out on whether Europe can weather its debt crisis, achieve growth and stabilize its common currency, former U.S. treasury chief Larry Summers did the American thing — and reached for a sports analogy.
“To put it in American baseball terms, we’re perhaps in the fourth inning on the European situation,” said Summers, headlining a panel at the World Economic Forum on Saturday that tackled the thorny — and technical — question of “Growth Versus Austerity.”
“As a European, that means nothing,” shot back the panel’s moderator, the BBC’s Jon Williams.
After some consultation with Europeans on the panel, Summers tried a cricket analogy, “the second day of the test” — invoking a word that suggests long days of competition.
Furrowed American brows were visible in the audience, and Israeli central bank governor Stanley Fischer — a native of what was then Rhodesia — furthermore objected, on grounds that in these revolutionary times “one-day tests” were not uncommon.
Summers finally scored on his third try: “Still in the first half of the football game!” Despite some mutterings about which type of football was meant, the point was made, a point for globalization was scored, and a “Davos moment” of cultures coming together was achieved.
The linguistic trifle underscored a broader divide between the U.S. and Europe, of course: One day earlier, British Prime Minister David Cameron took center stage defending his tough austerity measures.
Summers argued the U.S. was right to take the opposite approach, spending money to stimulate the economy.
“The highest priority has to attach to establishing strong and significant growth,” said Summers, a Harvard professor who until recently headed the White House National Economic Council and is considered an architect of President Barack Obama’s economic policy.
As a policy for the immediate term, the idea seemed to win backing of his fellow panelists.
