Summers offered an upbeat outlook regarding the prospects for the beginning of economic recovery by the end of 2009 although he said that job growth might continue to be sluggish for some time to come. To ensure solid economic recovery, Summers said, “That’s why the President’s emphasis on healthcare, the President’s emphasis on infrastructure, the President’s emphasis, in particular, on restructuring the energy economy, aren’t luxuries to be deferred at a time when we have a weak economy. They are actually an integral part of a strategy for having a different kind, a more sustained kind, of economic expansion. That really needs to be our objective so, that these next years are not just a period of recovery but a period of renewal as well.”
To view additional highlights and excerpts from the event, please click here.