Larry Summers Will Leave White House After Midterms

Top adviser joins exodus of economic team
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 21, 2010 4:32 PM CDT
Larry Summers Will Leave White House After Midterms
Deputy National Security Adviser Tom Donilon with National Economic Council Director Larry Summers before their meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Beijing, Sept. 6, 2010.   (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, Pool)

President Obama's top economic adviser plans to leave the administration at the end of the year, the White House said today. Lawrence Summers will leave his post as director of the National Economic Council to return to Harvard University, where he once served as president before being forced out in the aftermath of a remark about women's abilities in math and science. The departure comes amid a sluggish economic recovery that has seen unemployment hover near 10%.

Summers would be the third high-level member of the Obama economic team to leave this year, following the resignations of budget director Peter Orszag and Christina Romer, head of the Council of Economic Advisers. (More Obama administration stories.)

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