So This Is Why Larry's Been Mia

A few months after stepping down as president of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers has joined a $25 billion hedge fund management firm, D.E. Shaw & Co., as a part-time managing director. Summers will remain on the Harvard faculty while he works for D.E. Shaw on strategic initiatives and high-level portfolio management, according to the company. His "extraordinary intellect, deep understanding of the financial markets, and wealth of organizational experience will be uniquely valuable resources to the firm," the New York-based company's chairman, David Shaw, said in a statement. A spokeswoman for D.E. Shaw declined to comment on Summers's role in the company or his pay.... Summers, who is in Cambridge on a sabbatical this school year, has also agreed to write a monthly column in the Financial Times of London and to contribute to a blog started by the New Republic, called Open University. His column in the Financial Times was due to start this fall.