Summers' Economic Reality Check

Let's hope the teabaggers don't attack the messenger: Larry Summers, appearing on Meet the Press today, brought mostly bad news. After a week of positive reports from Wall Street and even President Obama himself, Summers emphasized caution, saying there was "a long road" ahead and that mixed economic statistics did not augur an immediate recovery. Tackling one of Obama's latest targets, credit card abuses, the director of the National Economic Council said: "We need to do things to stop the marketing of credit in ways that addicts people to it." Summers also pooh-poohed a quick lifting of the Cuban embargo, saying that like an economic recovery, it was not something that would happen overnight.