Christy Romer -- who's here today -- tapped to head the Council of Economic Advisers, as well as Larry Summers, who I'd chosen to head the National Economic Council, described an imminent downturn comparable in its severity to almost nothing since the 1930s.

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"If Ann Landers was a drunk and flagellant pirate, " that's what you'd have, said Summers, who still lives in Albany, Oregon.

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Summers began cooling in Northern Europe after 1300 A.D.

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