Summers was among many economists that had nothing but praise for Clinton's surplus budgets in the middle of a large bubble that was funded by private bank debt. Those who understood what debt means to the monopoly issuer of our currency as opposed to the private sector were predicting the inevitable collapse of that bubble and warning about the effects of the government removing more money from the economy than it was replacing in new spending.

They had history on their side, as the previous six attempts to reduce the debt resulted in an almost immediate recession/depression. It took a tax-cutting conservative, his giveaway to pharma, and wars for profit to bring back the balance that supported the growth required in the money supply to sustain the economy.

However, the spending was horribly misdirected and the housing bubble was already under full steam as people began using their real estate as ATM cards and investors were desperate for any safe harbor for their wealth to replace the Treasury bonds that aren't generated by balanced budgets.