Summers says that the current focus on monetary policy is not enough to combat the current downward world economic trend. Yes, as I said, I think he's right. But his own solutions fall short.

Right now interest rates are extremely low - even negative in some countries. This high price for government debt means the markets are demanding that governments issue more debt. This is the law of supply and demand. Again: money markets are demanding more supply of government debt.

This year's political campaign has forced the economics profession to reconsider the fraying orthodoxy of free trade.

John Maynard Keynes once famously said that the difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas but in escaping from old ones. And one of the oldest and most pervasive and pernicious economic ideas is that technology kills jobs.

And to think Larry Summers almost got the job instead.