The Times weighs in on Barack Obama’s economic team and, specifically, Larry Summers with an editorial that is mildly critical of them—which for the Times is like swinging the hammer of Thor.*

… the question that most needs answering is not whether Mr. Geithner and Mr. Summers are men of talent — obviously they are — but whether they have learned from their mistakes, and if so, what.

As treasury secretary in 2000, Mr. Summers championed the law that deregulated derivatives, the financial instruments — a k a toxic assets — that have spread the financial losses from reckless lending around the globe. He refused to heed the critics who warned of dangers to come.

That law, still on the books, reinforced the false belief that markets would self-regulate. And it gave the Bush administration cover to ignore the ever-spiraling risks posed by derivatives and inadequate supervision.

Mr. Summers now will advise a president who has promised to impose rational and essential regulations on chaotic financial markets. What has he learned?

Quite so. It would also be fair to ask him what he has learned from the Harvard experience.

*The hammer of Thor. And Thor.