Lawrence H. Summers, the top economic adviser to President Obama, earned more than $5 million last year from the hedge fund D. E. Shaw and collected $2.7 million in speaking fees from Wall Street companies that received government bailout money, the White House disclosed Friday in releasing financial information about top officials.

Mr. Summers, the director of the National Economic Council, wields important influence over Mr. Obama’s policy decisions for the troubled financial industry, including firms from which he recently received payments.

…He appeared before large Wall Street companies like Citigroup ($45,000), J. P. Morgan ($67,500) and the now defunct Lehman Brothers ($67,500), according to his disclosure report.

The article goes on to quote a White House spokesman who said that it wasn’t a conflict because Summers was “widely recognized as one of the country’s most distinguished economists.”

Bullshit.

What did Summers know about the executive bonuses while ramming the agreements through congress in the first few days of the new administration?