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A Big, Big Miss and Why You Should Never Listen to Larry Summers

Former Treasury Secretary and current Harvard Professor Larry Summers listens to remarks during a discussion on low-income developing countries at the annual IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, April 13, 2016, in Was... Former Treasury Secretary and current Harvard Professor Larry Summers listens to remarks during a discussion on low-income developing countries at the annual IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, April 13, 2016, in Washington, DC. / AFP / Mike Theiler (Photo credit should read MIKE THEILER/AFP via Getty Images) MORE LESS

May 7, 2021 10:28 a.m.

The Labor Department reported today that the US economy added 266,000 jobs last month. Normally that would be a healthy number. But it’s roughly three quarters of a million jobs short of what most economists were expecting. In other words, it’s a massive miss and as economist Justin Wolfers puts it, it is a “big miss that changes how we think about the recovery.”

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