Summers leaving White House at end of year

White House National Economic Council Director Larry Summers is leaving his post at the end of the year and returning to teach at Harvard University.

“I will always be grateful that at a time of great peril for our country, a man of Larry’s brilliance, experience and judgment was willing to answer the call and lead our economic team,” President Obama said in a statement. “Over the past two years, he has helped guide us from the depths of  the worst recession since the 1930s to renewed growth.

“And while we have much work ahead to repair the damage done by the recession, we are on a better path thanks in no small measure to Larry’s wise counsel,” Obama added. “We will miss him here at the White House, but I look forward to soliciting  his continued advice and his counsel on an informal basis, and appreciate that he has agreed to serve as a member of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.”

In recent months, a growing chorus of Congressmen – including U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga. – called for Summers and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to step down from their posts.

“As a show of good faith to the American people, the President should take immediate action to replace those who have crafted and implemented his economic agenda,” Price said in a statement last month. “Only with a clean slate in place and a dedication to a new direction, can we work to build a consensus toward policies that reflect the wishes of the American people and respect the role of small businesses and entrepreneurial job creators in our future prosperity.”