Feldstein was marginalized, and returned to Harvard in 1984. (After the experience, Reagan threatened to abolish the C.E.A.) Feldstein's truthtelling greatly affected Summers, and his own research became more focussed on battling economists, like Reagan's supply-siders, whose work, as he saw it, was grounded in abstractions and wishful thinking. He wrote, "No small part of our current economic difficulties can be traced to ignorant zealots who gained influence by providing answers to questions that others labeled as meaningless or difficult. Sound theory based on evidence is surely our best protection against such quackery." By the time Summers returned to Cambridge, he was becoming a star in his profession. The Boston Globe ran a fourteen-page profile of him in 1986. (The piece included this observation from Summers: "When I look out the window at my backyard, I can't think of anything interesting to ask. I mean, it's green, it's growing -- but nothing occurs to me that any concentrated effort of thought could possibly enlighten. Whereas in economic, statistical, or mathematical kinds of things, I can think of lots of questions.") The next year, Jack Corrigan, a friend of Summers from Harvard who had gone on to work for Governor Michael Dukakis, invited him to meet with the Governor, who was then campaigning for the Presidency. Summers became one of his top economic advisers. The campaign was a revelation to him. "It was a whole different world," Summers told me. "It drew on some of the skills that one developed in