Lawrence Summers, the former US Treasury secretary, has warned against allowing the president to intervene in monetary policymaking or it would only end up hurting the economy over time. As for the Fed's policy decisions, the former Treasury secretary said any emergency rate cut was untenable "in terms of the facts at hand" given that market volatility and stock market declines had eased since Monday's turmoil. Still, Mr. Summers said a "50 basis point cut" at the September policy meeting would probably be appropriate.