Trumponomics

Larry Summers: Trump's economic plan is 'ill-designed' and harmful

Trump's working class promise may not work: Summers
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Trump's working class promise may not work: Summers

President-elect Donald Trump's call for tax cuts, infrastructure spending and bringing money back to the U.S. could do serious harm to the economy, former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers told CNBC on Wednesday.

Summers said the plan rules out some of the most-needed changes to infrastructure, forgoing critical repairs to roads and schools in favor of more self-serving measures.

"The only infrastructure investments it can fund are the ones that are very commercial and yield revenues," Summers told "Squawk Box."

Summers, who also advised President Barack Obama, called parts of Trump's plan "ill-designed" and blasted the president-elect's protectionist trade policies for being harmful to the economy.

Summers said Trump's call for massive tax cuts was "very, very poorly targeted." He said the estate tax repeal will actually encourage saving and discourage spending.

"If you add it all up, it doesn't seem like a very favorable equation except for a limited number of companies that are going to benefit from the deregulatory measures," Summers said.