Summers Says Jobs Weakness Makes It Closer Call on Fed Going 50

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said that while the August employment report wasn’t particularly poor, it did make predicting the size of the Federal Reserve’s likely interest-rate cut this month a tougher call.

“The numbers certainly didn’t show hugely pronounced weakness, but if you were concerned by the recent trend in the statistics, they certainly didn’t give you a clean bill of health for the economy,” Summers said on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin. “It’s looking like a closer call for 25 versus 50 in September than was my guess a month or two ago.”