Larry Summers: belief

Transcript context

…Good afternoon. If you were in charge of the Her Majesty’s treasury in England, what would you do over the next few years to help protect the pound? I’m not sure that if I were head of Her Majesty’s . . . I’d have to get a new accent. But other than that, if I was head of Her Majesty’s treasury, I don’t think I’d define my objective in terms of the level of the pound. I think I would define my objectives in terms of the level of the British economy. First thing I would do is try to talk everybody out of Brexit, which I think is a costly unforced error that will, ultimately, make the British people poorer and less influential in the world. That’s the most important thing. Second thing is, if I had to stick with Brexit, I would try to preserve as much common access to the European market as I could, as a way of attracting investment. I guess, the last thing I’d say is, I would try to create an environment that was relatively hospitable to business, so I can encourage capital inflows, which would both spur growth and create demand for pounds, which, in terms of your question, would help preserve the value of the pound. That’s the end of our questions. Larry, thank you very much.…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.