劳伦斯·亨利·萨默斯博士是美国顶尖的经济学家之一。他曾在克林顿任职时期担任美国第71任财政部部长，并在奥巴马政府中担任白宫国家经济委员会主任。萨默斯博士还是哈佛大学前校长和世界银行前首席经济师。

　　萨默斯博士在美国财政部任职期间，见证了美国历史上持续时间最长的经济增长。在过去半个世纪里，他是唯一一位在离任时让全国预算尚有盈余的财政部部长。在应对过去二十年间每一次重大金融危机时，萨默斯博士都发挥了举足轻重的作用。

　　上世纪90年代，源自墨西哥、巴西、俄罗斯、日本和亚洲新兴市场的金融危机席卷全球，萨默斯博士牵头制定了美国的应对之策。作为奥巴马总统的首席经济顾问之一，萨默斯博士运用他的经济学思想，塑造了美国应对一系列重大事件的姿态。这些事件包括2008年金融危机、汽车行业的不景气以及欧元区经济危机对欧洲货币体系施加的重压。萨默斯从白宫卸任时，时任美国总统奥巴马表示：“我会永远感谢萨默斯，正是这样一个充满智慧、经验十足、判断得当的人，在我们国家面临困难的重要关头挑起重担，率领我们的经济团队做出了正确的决策。”《经济学人》赏识萨默斯的影响力，并对“萨默斯主义”进行了定义：它是金融危机期间制定经济政策的一种方法。这种方法把微观经济自由放任的市场思维和宏观经济中的权力运用相融合。“市场应该自由地分配资本、劳动力和想法，但有时市场会如同脱缰野马，这时政府必须施加强有力的管控。”

　　在萨默斯担任校长的五年间，哈佛大学见证了一段重大创新举措涌现的时期。萨默斯专注于实现机会均等，免除了家庭年收入低于6万美元的学生的学杂费。他发起倡议，致力于让波士顿市，尤其是剑桥市成为全球生命科学研究的领航者，并成立了数个干细胞研究和基因组学重点项目。也许萨默斯最重要的贡献是在任期内大幅增加了海外留学项目，并显著增进了师生交流和全校范围内的协作，为哈佛大学注入了新鲜血液。

　　萨默斯博士目前担任哈佛大学名誉校长和哈佛大学查尔斯·威廉·艾略特学会的教授——他在28岁那年就成了哈佛大学近代历史上最年轻的正教授之一。他目前是哈佛大学穆萨瓦•拉赫玛尼商业与政府中心的负责人。萨默斯是首个获得美国国家科学基金会颁发的艾伦•沃特曼科学成就奖的社会科学家。1993年，他还被授予了约翰·贝茨·克拉克奖，该奖是为表彰美国40岁以下最杰出的经济学家而设立的。萨默斯于2002年当选美国国家科学院院士。他还在学术期刊上发表了150多篇论文。

　　萨默斯为多个企业和投资者担任顾问。他是Square and Premise公司的董事、美国全球发展中心的董事会主席以及ONE公司的董事。他是汉密尔顿项目、哈钦斯财政与货币政策中心和彼得森国际经济研究所的顾问。萨默斯是美国进步中心杰出的高级研究员，最近还担任了包容性繁荣委员会的联合主席，并与纽约市长布隆伯格共同成立了财政政策专项小组。萨默斯还担任过全球健康委员会主席，此举获得联合国秘书长称赞：“这不仅会带来健康，还会促进公平，促使所有人过上有尊严的生活。”

　　美国前总统比尔·克林顿评价萨默斯：“他有着参透世界变化趋势的杰出才能，并且有能力塑造这些变化。”他被美国《时代》杂志、《外交政策》杂志、《展望》杂志和《经济学人》等众多杂志评为世界上最具影响力的思想家。萨默斯在他的演讲、《华盛顿邮报》的专栏文章以及公开评论中继续推进关于美国和全球经济政策的探讨。

　　Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers is one of America’s leading economists. In addition to serving as 71st Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration， Dr. Summers served as Director of the White House National Economic Council in the Obama Administration， as President of Harvard University， and as the Chief Economist of the World Bank.

　　Dr. Summers’ tenure at the U.S. Treasury coincided with the longest period of sustained economic growth in U.S. history. He is the only Treasury Secretary in the last half century to have left office with the national budget in surplus. Dr. Summers has played a key role in addressing every major financial crisis for the last two decades.

　　During the 1990s， he was a leader in crafting the U.S. response to international financial crises arising in Mexico， Brazil， Russia， Japan， and Asian emerging markets. As one of President Obama’s chief economic advisors， Dr. Summers’ thinking helped shape the U.S. response to the 2008 financial crisis， to the failure of the automobile industry， and to the pressures on the European monetary system. Upon Summers’ departure from the White House， President Obama said， “I will always be grateful that at a time of great peril for our country， a man of Larry’s brilliance， experience and judgment was willing to answer the call and lead our economic team.” The Economist recognized his influence when it defined the “Summers Doctrine，” an approach to economic policy during financial crises that fuses a microeconomic “laissez faire” mentality with macroeconomic activism. “Markets should allocate capital， labour and ideas without interference， but sometimes markets go haywire， and must be counteracted forcefully by government.”

　　Summers’ five years as President of Harvard represented a time of major innovation for the University. He focused on equality of opportunity and removing all financial obligation from students with family incomes below $60，000 a year. He launched a major effort to make Boston， and Cambridge in particular， the global leader in life sciences research， with the formation of major programs for stem cell research and genomics. Perhaps most importantly， he led efforts to renew Harvard College with dramatic increases in study abroad programs， faculty-student contact， and collaboration across the University during his tenure.

　　Currently， Dr. Summers is the President Emeritus and the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University， where he became a full professor at age 28， one of the youngest in Harvard’s recent history. He directs the University’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. Summers was the first social scientist to receive the National Science Foundation’s Alan Waterman Award for scientific achievement and， in 1993， he was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal， given to the most outstanding economist under 40 in the United States. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. He has published more than 150 papers in scholarly journals.

　　Summers is an advisor to businesses and investors. He serves on the board of Square and Premise. He chairs the board of the Center for Global Development and serves on the board of ONE. He is an advisor to The Hamilton Project， The Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He is a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and recently co-chaired the Commission on Inclusive Prosperity. He recently launched a Task Force on Fiscal Policy with Mayor Bloomberg and chaired the Commission on Global Health， lauded by the UN Secretary General who noted that it “will bring more than health – it will bring equity， and contribute to a life of dignity for all.”

　　President Bill Clinton said that Larry Summers “has the rare ability to see the world that is taking shape and the skill to help to bring it into being.” He has been recognized as one of the world’s most influential thinkers by Time， Foreign Policy， Prospect and The Economist magazines among many others. In his speeches， regular newspaper columns in The Washington Post and public commentary， he continues to move forward the debate on national and global economic policy.■