Summers on Recovery, Lack of Income Growth

In an article leading with Larry Summers' call on banks to increase lending, President Obama's National Economics Advisor gives Bloomberg reporters an update on the status of the economy:

Summers said the U.S. economy is "no longer in freefall," and poised for recovery starting this year. The former Treasury secretary and Harvard University president cited recent increases in exports, and said fiscal-stimulus and foreclosure- relief programs will create a "gathering force" in the coming months.

Even so, income growth may not "resume in the near term," he told Bloomberg editors and reporters.

"The pace of growth next year, I think, is very much in doubt and difficult to predict," Summers said. That "will depend crucially on our effectiveness in implementing the programs that have been legislated" and what Congress may do on health care, financial regulation and energy, he said.